Sofia and Athens agree on reciprocal transfer of historic relics

A Memorandum of Understanding on the reciprocal transfer of relics of historical significance to the two countries was signed today in Athens by the Ministers of Culture of Greece and Bulgaria, Lina Mendoni and Evtim Miloshev, the Greek Ministry of Culture said, as quoted by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). The Greek Ministry of Culture described the agreement as historically significant.

Greece will receive 48 ecclesiastical artefacts originating from the Monastery of the Virgin Mary Ikosifinissa (Panagia Ikosifinissa), the Monastery of St John the Baptist (Timios Prodromos) near Serres, and the Holy Metropolis of Serres and Nigrita. They were brought to Sofia in 1917, during the First World War, and have since been displayed or kept in storage at Bulgaria's National Historical Museum.

In return, Greece will transfer to Bulgaria the remains discovered at the Basilica of St Achillius in 1965 by Professor Nikolaos Moutsopoulos and identified as belonging to Bulgarian Tsar Samuil (997–1014), together with the other anthropological material recovered from all four sarcophagi at the basilica. In recent years, the remains have been kept at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki.

Edited by Miglena Ivanova