PIANA DEGLI ALBANESI (PALERMO)- AN ALBANIAN CORNER IN THE HEART OF SICILY
Piana degli Albanesi (literally, Plain of the Albanians), in Arbëreshë Hora e Arbëreshëvet, in Sicilian Chiana, is a little town with 6.214 inhabitants located approx. 25 km south-east of Palermo, Sicliy's chief town, at 725 metres above the sea level.Piana is the most populated Arbëreshë community of Sicily and a point of reference for the others communities scattered around the island.Just a few km. from Piana there is another Arbëreshë village, much smaller than Piana, named Santa Cristina Gela, Sëndastina in Arbëreshë.Other Arbëreshë villages in Sicily are Palazzo Adriano, Contessa Entellina and Mezzojuso. Piana was founded in 1488 by a group of exiled Arbëreshë who had run away from Arbëria, the ancient Albania, after the Ottoman conquest in order to avoid being converted to Islam by the Turks.Arbëreshë people were guided by the patriot Gjergj Kastrioti (Giorgio Castriota as it was translated to Italian) Skanderberg, and many of them spread around Southern Italy, particularly Sicily, Calabria and Molise.The Arbëreshë community has retained its original name which identifies themselves with the ancient Arbëria, and they are not called Shqiptar as people of modern Albania (Shqipëria), because this name came out after the Turk occupation and the escape of Arbëreshë ("Shqiptar" means "son of the eagle" and is related to the Albanian flag that also Gjiergj Kastrioti used, which is red with a doubleheaded eagle. This flag can be spotted in various places in Piana).The Arbëreshë from Piana also retained the Greek Byzantine ritual in church offices, while other Arbëreshë villages changed it to the Roman Catholic one.Piana is the chief town of an independent Eparchy, which includes also the other Siculo-Arbëreshë communities, and its religious services like masses and prayers are celebrated in both Albanian and Greek languages.Between the many celebrations held in Piana, the most beautiful and famous are the rituals and processions of the Holy Week, all of them of Greek-Byzantine origin.Piana degli Albanesi was called "Piana dei Greci" (of the Greeks) until 1941, when Benito Mussolini changed its name to the present one, upon request of the same inhabitants of Piana.The former name was due to the presence of the Greek-Byzantine religious ritual.However, in Arbëreshë it has always been called Hora e Arbëreshëvet.The inhabitants of Piana have also produly kept its Arbëreshë language troughout the centuries, a remarkable achievement indeed.Arbëreshë language is basically ancient Albanian (Tosk), with many borrowings from Greek and, more recently, Italian and Sicilian.The same word "hora" (plain) is a term of Greek origin.In Piana, the language is spoken everywhere in the town, from both elder and younger people, and is very easy to hear some of it walking through the village.On the contrary, some other Arbëreshë villages in Sicily have not been able to keep their language so well, which emphasizes even more Piana's achievement.Between the most important monuments of Piana there is its beautiful main church, the Cathedral of Saint Demeter.Another main attraction of the town are its renowned Sicilian cannoli, a typical delight, which are reputed the best ones in all of Sicily.However, Piana is not only worth visit because of its unique cultural legacy, but also for its wonderful natural environment, as it is surrounded by wild mountains and there is a beautiful lake just 2 km south of the town center.This combination of mountains and the lake gives to Piana wonderful landscapes which can be appreciated particularly at sunset.
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Greek-English-Greek electronic dictionaries. English Greek language translators ECTACO UK
Greek-English-Greek electronic dictionaries. English Greek language translators ECTACO UK