After 109 years: Bulgaria returned to Greece 48 relics taken out in 1917

Later 109 years old returned to Greece 48 church and historical relics exported to Bulgaria in 1917. However, this is not the first time treasures from looted monasteries in Northern Greece have been returned—the search for the scattered collection has been going on for decades.

Table of contents

• 48 relics returned after 109 years
• What happened in 1917
• What exactly returned to Greece
• This is not the first return
• 2016: Codex 1424 returns
• 2020: The gospel returns home after a century
• 2023: manuscripts found in a bag in Manhattan
• What did Bulgaria get?
• Why the agreement raises questions
• What else remains to be returned

48 relics returned after 109 years

October 3 at Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki protocols for the transfer of historical property between Greece and Bulgaria were signed.

For Greece, the main result was the return immediately 48 church and historical itemswhich have been in Bulgaria since 1917 and until recently were stored or exhibited in the National Historical Museum in Sofia.

We are talking about objects from three ecclesiastical centers of Northern Greece: Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of Panagia Ikosifinissa on Mount Pangea, the monastery of Timiou Prodromou near Serres and the metropolis of Serres and Nigrita.

The official agreement was concluded on September 29 by the ministers of culture of the two countries, and on October 3 the transfer ceremony itself took place in Thessaloniki.

OPEN: 48 relics return to Greece after 109 years.

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What happened in 1917

To understand the significance of the current event, it is necessary to go back more than a century.

During World War I, Eastern Macedonia was under Bulgarian occupation. IN 1917 Numerous manuscripts, icons, liturgical objects and other historical values ​​were taken from monasteries and church collections in the region.

One of the most severe losses was the looting of the famous monastery Panagia Ikosifinissa.

The monastery library and treasury possessed a unique collection of Byzantine and post-Byzantine manuscripts and church objects. After the events of 1917, a significant part of the collection disappeared.

In subsequent decades, individual objects were discovered far from Greece – in European and American libraries, museum collections, private owners and even at auctions.

Therefore, the current 48 items are not the beginning of the story of their return, but one of its largest stages.

What exactly returned to Greece

The returned collection is extremely diverse. It includes icons, liturgical vessels, silver reliquaries, crosses, church vestments, precious Gospel frames and the episcopal throne.

All these objects were located for more than a century outside the temples and monasteries for which they were created and to which they belonged.

To November 5, 2026 the entire returned collection can be seen in the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki.

After the end of the exhibition, the objects will be distributed according to their origin: they will go to the monasteries of Panagia Ikosifinissa and Thymiou Prodroma, as well as to the Metropolitanate of Serres and Nigrita.

This is not the first return

Readers of the Athens News are already familiar with this story. Over the past ten years, we have repeatedly talked about how individual fragments of the looted collection of Ikosifinissa were unexpectedly discovered thousands of kilometers from the monastery and returned to Greece.

Moreover, the return did not take place directly from Bulgaria. Over the past century, some of the exported valuables managed to find their way into international antique circulation, private collections, libraries and museums.

2016: Codex 1424 returns

One of the most notorious cases occurred in 2016.

Then he returned from the USA to Ikosifinissa Codex 1424 – a handwritten Gospel that came from the monastery library and was taken away during the looting of 1917.

The Athens News reported on this story in detail in the article “A unique Bible stolen during the First World War is returning to Greece from the USA”.

The return was the result of many years of searching for the origin of the manuscript and negotiations. Even then it was obvious that the single codex found was only a small part of a huge scattered collection.

2020: Another ancient gospel comes home

Four years later, the next important episode occurred.

In November 2020 Manuscript No. 220 was returned to the monastery – a parchment Greek Gospel from the late 10th – early 11th centuries, one of the oldest surviving works of its kind.

The manuscript was long considered lost. In the 21st century, she ended up in the USA and has been in the congregation since 2011 Museum of the Bible.

After its origin was established, the shrine was returned to Ikosifinissa. It was brought to Greece by the Archbishop of America Elpidophoros.

In 2022, the Athens News again returned in detail to this story and the scale of the plunder of the monastery in the material “1000-year-old Gospel stolen during World War I returned to Greece after a century”.

This story also allowed us to reconstruct a broader picture: it was not about a few randomly missing books, but about a systematically scattered monastery collection.

2023: manuscripts found in a plastic bag in Manhattan

An even more unusual story happened in 2023.

Three 16th-17th century Greek manuscripts from Ikosifinissa discovered in the office of an auction house Swann Auction Galleries in Manhattan.

They lay there for more than ten years, practically forgotten. The manuscripts were discovered only because renovations had begun on the premises.

After examining the origins of the documents, they were linked to the monastery library looted in 1917 and handed over to the Archdiocese of America for return to Greece.

We talked about this almost detective story in the publication “Manuscripts stolen from Greek monastery discovered during Manhattan office renovation”.

So gradually – object by object, manuscript by manuscript – parts of the disappeared monastery collection began to return home.

What did Bulgaria get?

The current agreement is mutual.

Greece handed over to Bulgaria human remains discovered in 1965 Professor Nikolaos Moutsopoulos during the archaeological research of the Basilica of St. Achilleus on an island in Lake Lesser Prespa.

They were identified by researchers as the remains Bulgarian Tsar Samuilwho reigned from 997 to 1014.

Along with them, anthropological material found in four sarcophagi inside the basilica is transferred.

Samuil is one of the key figures in medieval Bulgarian history. His state waged war for decades with Byzantium and Emperor Basil II.

Therefore, for Bulgaria, the return of the remains has enormous historical and symbolic significance.

OPEN: agreement between Greece and Bulgaria on the return of 48 church relics and the transfer of the remains of Tsar Samuel.

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Why the agreement raises questions

It was the reciprocal transfer of Samuel’s remains that became one of the most discussed aspects of the agreement.

Questions are being raised in Greece about how comparable the historical and symbolic value of the remains of a medieval ruler and the group of 48 objects being returned are. In particular, objections to the transfer of the remains were voiced by Metropolitan Drama.

There is also a legal nuance. An official communication from the Greek government uses the term “mutual transfer for safekeeping” (“κατάθεση”) historical values. At the same time, Greek authorities are publicly talking about the return and repatriation of 48 relics.

Therefore, it is important not to reduce a complex interstate agreement to the simple formula “48 items were exchanged for Samuel.”

The agreement is based on years of negotiations, and its significance goes far beyond today’s ceremony.

48 items – but the story is not over yet

The main question now is how much more valuables exported from Northern Greece remain outside the country.

There is no exact single number for all monasteries and church meetings in public sources. Different studies and publications provide different estimates, since we are talking about several episodes of export, different collections and objects that subsequently changed owners several times.

However, the scale of losses in Ikosifinissa alone was enormous. Historical research speaks of hundreds of manuscripts, icons and liturgical objects.

And that is why the point of the current Greek-Bulgarian agreement is especially important: negotiations do not end with the transfer of the current 48 relics.

Athens and Sofia formally agreed to continue work to identify other historical items of mutual interest that were not included in the current package, with the possibility of a follow-up agreement.

Thus, the events of October 3 should be considered not as the final point in the history of looted collections, but as the largest stage in their gradual return in recent years.

It is significant that some objects made their way home through the United States a century after export, others were discovered by chance in museum collections and even forgotten packages, and the current 48 are being returned for the first time directly from the Bulgarian state museum collection.

Official sources

• Greek government – agreement on the return of 48 relics and the transfer of the remains of King Samuel;
• ERT – ceremony for the return of 48 relics in Thessaloniki;
• OPEN – report on the return of relics after 109 years;
• OPEN – agreement between Greece and Bulgaria.

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