In the central square of Skopje, Tsar Samuil sits on a marble throne. The monument was erected in June 2011 as part of the “Skopje 2014“ project - a sign that for the official historical policy in North Macedonia, the ruler is part of the national narrative of the country's medieval past. In Bulgaria, the same ruler is revered as one of the last great kings of the First Bulgarian Kingdom.
This difference is not a dispute about the very existence of Samuil, but about the state and historical community to which he should be attributed. Medieval sources associate him with the Bulgarian royal power, while in Skopje his presentation as the ruler of a “Macedonian medieval state“, whose center was located around Ohrid and Prespa, predominates.
The king who continues the war with Byzantium
Samuil was one of the four sons of Count Nikola. After the conquest of Preslav by Byzantium in 971, the brothers David, Moses, Aaron and Samuil continued the resistance in the western lands of Bulgaria. Gradually, Samuil became the main military and political leader, and after the death of Tsar Roman in 997, he accepted the royal crown.
The ruler built centers of his power around Ohrid and Prespa and waged a prolonged war with Emperor Basil II. Samuil's state covered significant parts of the Balkans, and his army repeatedly undertook campaigns against Byzantine territories. In 1014, however, Basil II inflicted a decisive defeat on the Bulgarians at Klyuch in the Belasica Pass.
Byzantine accounts of the blinding of captured Bulgarian soldiers make the battle one of the most tragic episodes in the region's medieval history. Samuil died on 6 October 1014, a few months after the defeat. According to the traditional account, the cause was a heart attack brought on by the sight of his blinded soldiers, but the details of his death come from medieval chronicles and cannot be verified by modern medical means.
How Samuil is presented in Skopje
In the historiography of North Macedonia, Samuil is included in the narrative of a separate medieval Macedonian statehood. His monument in Skopje is the most visible symbol of this understanding. The Macedonian scientific and public narrative emphasizes Ohrid and Prespa as political centers and the fact that the main events of his reign took place on the territory of present-day North Macedonia.
The Bulgarian position is different: Samuil is the king of Bulgaria, and the Ohrid and Prespa regions are part of the state that continues the tradition of the First Bulgarian Kingdom. In 2019, both countries still accept Samuil as a figure from their common history. Later, the Joint Multidisciplinary Expert Commission recommended that he be celebrated as the ruler of a large medieval state, which the majority of modern historical scholarship defines as the Bulgarian Kingdom.
„Tsar Samuil is the ruler of a large medieval state, which the majority of modern historical scholarship defines as the Bulgarian Kingdom“, the commission's recommendation states.Why are his bones in Greece
In 1969, the Greek archaeologist Nikolaos Moutsopoulos explored the basilica of „Saint Achilleos“ on an island in the Small Prespa Lake, today in Greece. Four rich burials were discovered in the southern part of the temple. One of the skeletons is associated with Tsar Samuil because of the location of the grave, the expensive gold-woven fabric, the remains of a chest armor, the age of the buried person and the old fracture of the left arm.
This is a scientific identification, but not absolute genetic proof. Historian Georgi Nikolov noted to the Bulgarian National Radio that the remains have not been confirmed by a complete DNA analysis. Therefore, in a professional text it is more accurate to speak of the “presumed remains of Samuil“, rather than fully proven remains.
After the archaeological study, the bones were transferred to Thessaloniki and are today kept in the Museum of Byzantine Culture. The Greek archaeologist Moutsopoulos publicly supported their return to Bulgaria and linked the issue to a possible exchange of religious manuscripts that Bulgaria keeps for originals claimed by the Greek side.
In 2025, however, the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture stated that it had no official data on any interstate negotiations for the return of the remains. Thus, Samuil's grave remained on the island of “Saint Achilleos“, his alleged bones - in Thessaloniki, and his image continued to be simultaneously a Bulgarian, Macedonian and Balkan subject of memory and dispute.
On September 29, 2026, the government announced the agreement reached for the transfer of the mortal remains. It will take place on October 3 at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, after which the remains will be transported to Bulgaria.
It is planned that other remains and sarcophagi associated with the royal family will be transferred along with them.
Sources: BNT, BNR, National Geographic Bulgaria