Following the tradition of naming streets in Sofia after Bulgarian rulers of all epochs, Tsar Samuil Street - in the central part of the capital - got its name from one of the last rulers of the First Bulgarian Kingdom. This man's personality has created an ongoing controversy of whether he was a hero of Bulgarian or Macedonian history.

Samuil was born in the southwestern Bulgarian lands (today's Macedonian territory). He declared himself a ruler of the Bulgarian kingdom after Tsar Roman voluntary surrendered his power in 997. Although he was not a member of a royal family but only a military commander of Tsar Roman, Samuil proved born to rule and held the throne from that time until 1014.

Before he assumed power, Samuil's father Nikola was head of the Sredets komitat (administrative region). During the tumultuous reigns of Peter and Boris - when invaders harassed the Bulgarian outlands - Nikola's four sons zealously fought for Bulgaria's independence. After 10 years of constant battles, they succeeded in liberating the northeastern territories. However, soon afterwards, the sons Moses and David were killed in battles with the Byzantines. The third son, Aaron, was accused of treason and killed together with his family on Samuil's orders.

During this time, Samuil continued to repulse Byzantine attacks. He persevered for almost four decades, although the Byzantine Empire was at the height of its power. In the battle for the survival of his people and his state, Samuil gained the reputation of an able commander and politician, and earned the love of his subjects. Byzantine chronicles described him as a restless, militant man. During the years of his military command, the Bulgarians captured fortress after fortress in Thrace and around Adrianople. Much of the Byzantine Empire's western territories came under Bulgarian control. Samuil's horsemen journeyed south, all the way to Peloponnese and Corynth.

In 986, Bulgarians, led by Samuil won a great victory in the battle at Troyanovi Vrata. On August 17, after the defeat of his army, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II fled, leaving behind his treasure hoard and a supply train.

Inspired by their victory, the Bulgarians continued their victorious march through the Byzantine lands. Strongholds like Vereia and Servia in southern Macedonia fell to their assaults. Samuil reached the Aegean coast when his troops overran the region of Drach. A successful campaign against the Serbs forced their prince to accept the patronage of the Bulgarian tsar. That campaign marked the end of a tumultuous decade in Bulgarian-Byzantine relations.

Under the commandment of Samuil, Bulgaria was again established as a great power in the Balkans. According to Byzantine chroniclers, "Samuil waged prolonged wars with the Greeks and drove them out of Bulgaria, so that in his time they did not even dare set foot on Bulgarian soil."

However, Emperor Basil II did not acquiesce with the defeat of his army at Troyanovi Vrata. When his troops recovered, he set out to put the internal affairs of the empire in order. In a new drive against Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Tsar Roman was taken captive and later died in a prison in Constantinople. He was the last of Simeon's dynasty.

In 997, Samuil crowned himself Tsar. A brief suspension of hostilities with Byzantium allowed him to turn his efforts to the internal concerns of his state, which some historians call Western Bulgaria.

At the time, Samuil's state spread from the northeastern most Bulgarian territories to Southern Macedonia. The boyars and their fortified towns submitted to Samuil's supreme authority. The nobles actively supported their tsar in the fights with Byzantium, for they knew the advantages of unity.

Samuil moved his capital from Sredets (Sofia) to Voden, to Prespa and finally to Ohrid, in reaction to the developments in the war with Byzantium.

In the newly erected palace in his last capital, Ohrid, Samuil developed and enforced the state system devised in Simeon's time. The remnants of Samuil's castle can be seen today and are one of the landmarks of the Macedonian town of Ohrid.

In Samuil's kingdom, the Kav-Khan remained the highest dignitary, the tsar's right-hand man. In the heart of the state - the lands around Sofia and in Macedonia - fortified castles were erected to repel Byzantine attacks. Numerous churches, stone carvings and paintings in Ohrid, Prespa and Kostur testify to the tsar's concern about the spiritual aspect of Bulgarian life.

Meanwhile, in 1001, Emperor Basil II once again raised an army and started a new campaign against Bulgaria. Samuil fought fiercely but was forced to retreat and give away lands. Many of his nobles, like Krakra of Pernik, heroically defended their strongholds. Others chose to become traitors in order to survive. Disunity gradually depleted Samuil's state.

In the summer of 1014, the Bulgarian army suffered a crushing defeat in a gorge of the Strumitsa river near the village of Klyuch (part of today's Macedonia). Upon victory, Basil II ordered the 14,000 Bulgarian prisoners blinded. One in every 100 men was left with one eye in order to lead the men home.

At the sight of the blinded soldiers, Samuil suffered a heart attack and died. His son, Gavril Radomir, spent only a year on the throne after which his cousin Ivan Vladislav killed him.

However, when Tsar Ivan Vladislav was killed in a battle in 1018, nothing could stop the Byzantine emperor from taking Ohrid and most of the territories of the Bulgarian kingdom. His cruelty won him the name of Bulgaroctonus, Slayer of the Bulgars.