Piana Degli Albanesi - History

History

Piana degli Albanesi was founded in the late fifteenth century by a large group of Albanian refugees coming from the Balkans during the conquest of the latter by the Ottoman Empire. The exodus began after the defeat of the Byzantine Empire and the death of Skanderbeg, who successfully fought for the freedom of their people for more than two decades.

The village was founded on 30 August 1488, was asked to Cardinal Giovanni Borgia by Monreale the right to remain in the lands of Mercu and Aydingli, located in the mountains in the province of Palermo.

In 1482-1485, after several attacks from the Ottoman Empire, the Christian-orthodox Albanians were forced to the Adriatic coast where they hired ships from Republic of Venice and escaped by sailing managed to advance up to reach Sicily. They apparently were housed in temporary camps somewhere near Palermo until about 1486 or 1487, when they were granted land know initially as the "Plain of the Archbishop", inland areas of Sicily, in the mountains above the city of Palermo. Signed the "capitulation" in Albanian and Italian, which were also recognized with followed by the Brief of Pope Sixtus IV, the official concession of land was granted to the settlers in 1488, followed by the construction of the largest Albanian center of the island and, primarily, religious buildings.

King John II of Spain and Sicily 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. In 1941, during the Fascist regime and after Italy attacked Greece, the name was changed to "Piana degli Albanesi".

During the 19th century, the Arbëreshë of Piana degli Albanesi played a significant role for the Italian national unity, and participated in the stronger phases of the movement of Fasci Siciliani. The inhabitants of Piana degli Albanesi were known to have a reputation for compared to the maximum of his country, patriotic Albanians and first rebelliousness to the precarious situation of the times, but were not organized politically until the arrival of the Fascio in April 1893.

In 1947, the regional Mafia hired the bandit Salvatore Giuliano to shoot down the annual May Day demonstration of the Pianesi, which took place in a remote mountain pass. The bandit and his gang indeed attacked them there, killing fourteen people in what came to be known as the Portella della Ginestra massacre.

After the founding of the village the inhabitants were required by papal decree to declare allegiance to the Pope and thus their faith was changed from Greek Orthodox to Byzantine Catholic, in practice their daily rituals changed little.

Over the centuries the inhabitants have jealously preserved their cultural roots as the Byzantine rite, language, traditions and typical women's costumes richly embroidered, and today, in the twenty-first century, is still strong attachment to the land native.