Remains Associated with Tsar Samuel Handed to Bulgaria; Ecclesiastical Relics Return to Greece

Ανακαλύψτε περισσότερα άρθρα στα αποτελέσματα αναζήτησης

More than a century after the entire region was swept up in the turmoil of World War I, nearly 50 priceless religious artifacts that had long been separated from the places of worship for which they were created are being repatriated to a handful of monasteries in northern Greece.

At the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki on Saturday, Greece and Bulgaria formally sealed an agreement for the reciprocal return of the ecclesiastical relics, completing a process that began almost half a century ago and placing cultural heritage at the center of a renewed relationship between the two neighboring countries.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, speaking alongside Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev at a signing ceremony, described the agreement as something “much deeper than a simple cultural exchange,” saying the repatriation of important objects of collective memory could turn difficult moments of the past into “bridges” toward a shared future.