Tsar Samuil Fortress

Tsar Samuil fortress is located some 15 km away from the town of Petrich, at the foot of the Belasitsa mountain. It is situated on an upland right next to the right shore of the river of Strumeshnitza. This is the place where one of the biggest tragedies in the history of Bulgaria took place back in 1014. In a battle near the fortress, the Byzantine emperor Basil II, called the Bulgaroctone (Bulgar Slayer), crashed the Bulgarian army, headed by Tsar Samuil and took into captivity almost everyone. Tsar Samuil and his closest followers managed to escape in the last moment. According to the Christian doctrine, all captured Christians should be released after the end of the war. The Byzantine emperor violated this military rule and blinded 14,000 prisoners, leaving one man in every hundred with the sight in one eye to lead his comrades home. The Samuil fortress is a national monument, which will always remind to the future generations of the heroic fight of Samuil and the Bulgarian people for our country’s independence.

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