site.btaTsar Samuel's Remains to Be Received at State Ceremony in Sofia

The remains of Tsar Samuel will be received at a state ceremony in Sofia's Knyaz Alexander I Square on Saturday, the government press service said.

The remains of Samuel, one of Bulgaria’s best-known medieval rulers, will be handed over to the Bulgarian state more than 1,000 years after his death. Samuel ruled from 997 to 1014.

Prime Minister Rumen Radev and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will attend the official handover ceremony at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki. A state ceremony will follow in Sofia, the press service said.

The remains will be flown aboard a Spartan military transport aircraft. Upon entering Bulgarian airspace, it will be intercepted and escorted by two pairs of MiG-29 and F-16 fighter jets. The formation will later fly over Knyaz Alexander I Square. The fighters will make a second flyover after the Spartan lands. The Bulgarian Armed Forces will transport the remains from Vasil Levski Sofia Airport to the square.

President Iliana Iotova will attend a ceremony titled “Bulgaria Welcomes Tsar Samuel,” where Radev will deliver an address. A 21-gun salute will be fired as the Bulgarian national anthem is played. The remains will then be taken in procession to St Sophia Church, where the public can pay their respects and a Trisagion memorial service will be held.

Radev said Tuesday that a “historic agreement on the return of Tsar Samuel’s remains” had been reached. Bulgaria’s efforts to recover the remains began in 1969, he said, when renowned Greek archaeologist Nikolaos Moutsopoulos discovered them during excavations at a basilica Samuel had built on St Achillios Island in Small Prespa Lake, where the ruler had a summer residence. Radev said Bulgaria had pursued their return continuously for six decades. Later on Tuesday, the Bulgarian and Greek culture ministers signed an agreement for the reciprocal transfer of historically significant relics.