PIANA DEGLI ALBANESI
Generic information
Province of: Palermo
Elevation: 720 m
Population: 6,150
GPS coordinates
Latitude: 37.996414
Longitude: 13.283802
Map
Web site
Url: http://www.pianalbanesi.it
Italian version: www.sicilianelmondo.com
Photos
Description
Piana degli Albanesi (Sicilian: Chiana Arbanisi), formerly Piana dei Greci is an Italian comune in the Province of Palermo, Sicily. It has 6,227 inhabitants as of 2001.
The town is known for being principally an Arbėreshė community, and is called Hora e Arbėreshėvet or Hora Sheshi Oįna in the residents' own dialect of Albanian. The inhabitants have their origin in the Albanian town of Himarė and the Greek town of Corone.
History
The town was founded on 30 August 1488 by refugees from the region of Himarė, Albania.
In 1482-1485 a Turkish attack forced these families to the Adriatic coast where they hired ships from Venice and escaped by sailing to northern Sicily. They apparently were housed in temporary camps somewhere near city of Palermo until about 1486 or 1487, when they then applied to Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, Archbishop of Monreale, for the right to make permanent settlement on his fiefs of Merku and Daidingli, known as the "Plain of the Archbishop" in the mountains above the city of Palermo. The official concession of land was granted to the settlers in 1488.
In 1534 another group of families, known as the 'Coroni', settled in the village. They were Medieval Albanians, called by the Italians and Greeks from the Venetian fortress of Corone in the Peloponnese region of southwestern Greece.
King John II of Spain allowed the original refugees to occupy the present place and to preserve their Orthodox religion, which was identified as Greek, so that the small town had the name of "Piana dei Greci". The Italian name was changed to Piana degli Albanesi in 1941, at a time when Mussolini had incorporated Albania into a Greater Italy which was at war with Greece.
Church
The most important churches are the Cathedral Church of Shėn Mitrit Deshmor i Math (St. Demetrius Megalomartyr) of the Arbėresh rite dating back to 1590; the church of Shėn Mėris e Dhitrjės (St. Mary of Odigitria) built in 1644 according to architect Pietro Novelli's plan; and the church of Shėn Gjergjit (St. George), the oldest in the town.
There is also a Roman Catholic church, the Klisha e Shėndo Vit (St. Vitus) which dates to 1514, with an imposing portal.
Language
Piana degli Albanesi is officially bilingual, as the official town documents are written in both Arbėrisht and Italian and its citizens are trilingual, proficient in both languages as well as the local Sicilian dialect. However, the local dialect of Arbėrisht is undergoing attrition with children learning Arbėrisht as their first language and being more confident using Arbėrisht, then by school leaving age are more comfortable with Italian and are able to express a wider range of concepts in Italian. This attrition may be due to the lack of formal education in Arbėrisht and the lack of Albanian media.
Some common phrases
Falem Hello.
Ēė bėn? What are you doing?
Si rri? How are you?
Tė haristis Thank you.
Flet arbėrisht? Do you speak Arbėrisht?
Ka vjen? Where are you from?
Tė parkales Please
Gėzuar tė tė njoh Pleased to meet you
Mirė menatė Good morning
Si tė thonė? What's your name?
Mua mė thonė... My name is...
O/ėj Yes
Jo No
Easter
The town has a unique Easter Festival tradition which takes place according to a peculiar itinerary: at the entrance to the town, two locals dressed in traditional costume receive visitors and give them some coloured eggs. Later follows the Divine Liturgy and during the service the Gospel is read in seven different languages, among them, Arabic. At the end of the church service, there is a procession through the town streets, with everyone dressed in traditional costume.
The Traditional Costume
In more than five centuries of arbėreshė presence in Sicily, the traditional female costume has undergone various transformations that make it difficult to reconstruct its origins. Prints of Houel and Vuiller have been very useful iconographic sources through archives which document the use of the costume since the sixteenth century), these prints have enabled arbėreshė ethnologists to trace the prototypes of the costumes. At the end of 700 using traditional female Apparel is also documented in Palazzo Adriano. There is, however, sufficient evidence to determine whether the costumes have a common origin refers to Albania of the fifteenth and sixteenth or the land of emigration. Until the end of th 17th century the use of traditional female costime is also documented in Palazzo Adriano. There is not, however, sufficient evidence to determine whether the costumes have a common origin in Albania of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries or in other parts of Epirus. The clothes, tied to the various moments of life for women, marked the rhythms of social tradition of the past. Even if handed down from mother to daughter and jealously preserved, they lost their link with the events; No more clothes, but costumes. The progressive loss of this relationship began by the 20th century onwards, when Europe introduced new fashionable clothes. After 1940 women were wearing traditional costumes (except the daily one) only on special occasions such as baptisms, marriages and especially the Epiphany and Easter. Only the wedding dress has retained its specific use.
Wedding Gown
Widely preferred than the common white dress and worn only by brides is the wedding gown that lacks the cape but supplemented by sleeves embroidered with gold and fifteen green tufts also embroidered in gold, a cream-colored veil and head-dress (symbol of family responsibility). The keza or skirt, made of red silk velvet and embroidered with gold patterns. Until the first half of the 20th century, a dress in brocade damask, sometimes replaced the embroidered silk.
Typical Products
Particular are handicraft products such as golden embroideries, puppets in Albanian-costume, icons, painting on cloth and artistic pottery articles.
Cuisine
StrangujėtStrangujėt
A form of Gnocchi called Strangujtė made with flour by hand, flavoured with tomato sauce (lėnk) and Basil. Traditionally this dish was consumed by families seated around a floor level table of wood (zbrilla) on the 14th September, the 'Festa e Kryqit Shejt' (exaltation of the Cross).
Grurėt
GrurėtBoiled wheat dish flavored with olive oil, known as cuccģa in the Sicilian language. The tradition is to eat it on Festa e Shėn Luēiės. Variations are the use of sweetened milk or ricotta with flakes of chocolate, orange peel and almonds.
Kanojėt
KanojėtCannoli, the universally famous Pianotto sweet dish. Its culinary secret is waffle (shkorēa) of flour, wine, lard and salt and filled with sweetened ricotta, and lastly sprinkled with sieved chocolate.
Bukė
Arbėresh bread (bukė) is prepared with local hard grain flour and manufactured to a round and mostly leavened shape with natural methods. It is cooked in antique firewood furnaces (Tandoor). It is eaten warm flavored with olive oil (vaj i ullirit) and dusted with cheese or with fresh ricotta.
Panarėt
PanarėtArbėresh Easter bread shaped either into a circle or into two large braids and sprinkled with sesame seeds. It is adorned with red Easter eggs. The Easter eggs are dyed deep red to represent the blood of Christ, the eggs also represent new life and springtime. It is traditionally eaten during the Resurrection Meal. After 40 days of fasting - as per the Byzantine Catholic tradition- the Easter feast has to begin slowly, with a light meal after the midnight liturgy on Saturday night. The fast is generally broken with Panarėt.
Loshkat and Petullat
Sweetened spherical or crushed shaped fried leavened dough. Eaten on the eve of E Mart e Madh Carnival.
Tė plotit
Tė plotitA sweet cake in various shaped with fig marmellade filling, one of the oldest Arbėresh dishes.
Milanisė
MilanisėTraditionally eaten on the Festa e Shėn Zefit and Good Friday, is a pasta dish made with a sauce (lėnk) of wild Fennel paste, Sardines and pine nuts.
Udhose and Gjizė
Udhose and GjizėHomemade cheese and ricotta normally dried outdoors.
Likėngė
Pork sausages flavored with salt, pepper and seed of Fennel (farė mbrai).
Llapsana
Forest Brussel sprout (llapsana) fried with garlic and oil.
Dorėzėt
Very thin home-made semolina spaghetti, cooked in milk and eaten on Ascension Day.
Groshėt
Soup made of Fava beans, chickpeas and Haricot beans.
Verdhėt
During Easter a kind of pie is prepared with eggs, lamb, ricotta, sheep cheese and (previously boiled) leaf stalks of Scolymus hispanicus; in some villages, the young aerial parts of wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare spp . pipentum) are used instead.
Archaeology
Within the confines of the comune is the site of the ancient city of Pirama, currently the focus of archaeological research.
From Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Piana_degli_Albanesi&oldid=286165021>.