SAN PAOLO ALBANESE

Landscape

San Paolo Albanese

A quiet and welcoming village, the ideal place to experience nature at its most authentic, in a way of life that invites you to reconnect with yourself.

Founded by groups of Albanian refugees who fled the Turkish invasions of the 16th century, San Paolo Albanese (Shën Palji in Arbëresh) is the smallest municipality in Basilicata. Yet its community, comprising just over 200 inhabitants, keeps the Arbëresh language, culture and traditions very much alive.

The village centre is built around the Church of San Rocco, which follows the Greek-Byzantine rite. And it is precisely on the occasion of the feast day dedicated to the saint, which falls on 16 August, that the community of believers brings to life a deeply felt event: the carrying of the ‘gregne’, that is, a large bundle of wheat ears carried on the shoulders in procession, at the end of which folk groups perform the traditional ‘falcetto’ dance.

Iconostasi Chiesa di San Rocco di San Paolo Albanese

Sarmento Valley

The Lucanian side of the Pollino and the vast Sarmento river basin characterise the landscape of San Paolo Albanese. It is an area of great natural interest, with vast unspoilt areas dominated by forests and high-altitude grasslands.

The Sarmento valley stretches east of the Pollino mountain range and originates from the beech and silver fir forests on the northern slope of Serra di Crispo. From Monte Carnara, and in particular from the Timpa della Guardiola viewpoint, one can enjoy a landscape of rare beauty: from here, one can see the iconic Serre del Dolcedorme, delle Ciavole, di Crispo, del Prete and Monte Pollino.

Vista cime innevate da San Paolo Albanese

Pollino National Park

The Pollino National Park covers an area of 192,565 hectares: it is the largest newly established protected area in Italy. Straddling Calabria and Basilicata, the Park’s territory – which encompasses 56 municipalities – is characterised by several mountain ranges that make up the southern Apennines: the Pollino Massif, the Orsomarso Mountains and Mount Alpi. Here, amidst towering peaks, nature and humankind have forged millennia-old bonds that the Park, established in 1993, preserves and protects under its emblem: the Loricato pine.

In 2015, the Park joined the European and Global Geoparks Network under the auspices of UNESCO, which, in 2017 and 2021 respectively, included the Ancient Beech Forest of Cozzo Ferriero and the Ancient Beech Forest of Pollinello in the transnational site of the “Ancient Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe”, designating them as World Heritage Sites.

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Tramonto sui Piani del Pollino con i pini loricati

Composizione con alcuni elementi della tradizione arbereshe

The Arbëreshë Communities of the Park

Italian-Albanian communities have been present in the Pollino area since the 15th century. For the most part, they have preserved the use of their language and, on special occasions, their colourful traditional costumes.
Lungro is home to the Eparchy of the Italian-Albanians of mainland Italy, established in 1919 by Pope Benedict XV, which preserves traditions and rites belonging to the Orthodox Church in accordance with the Church of Rome.

The towns concerned are:
San Paolo Albanese / Shën Pali (PZ)
San Costantino Albanese / Shën Kostandini (PZ)
Acquaformosa / Firmoza (CS)
Civita / Çifti (CS)
Frascineto / Frasnita (CS)
Lungro / Ungra (CS)
Plataci / Pllatani (CS)
San Basile / Shën Vasili (CS)

Traditional festivals

The Arbëreshë communities of the Pollino National Park have preserved an unbroken sense of belonging to their ethnic group. Folk traditions often evoke their homeland of origin in songs, legends and sayings. In festivals and rituals, the theme of nostalgia for the lost homeland is recurrent, as is the memory of the legendary deeds of the hero Scanderbeg, the heroic defender of Albanian independence against the Ottoman invasion, whose effigy is always found in Arbëreshë settlements.

Among the most interesting dance and musical expressions is the ‘vallja’, an ancient and fascinating folk dance held during the Easter period, which commemorates the victory of Giorgio Castriota Scanderbeg (Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu).

It is a sung dance, performed along the village streets; the music and style of the dance vary from village to village, but it is always danced in a group: men and women hold hands or join together with handkerchiefs, dancing and singing epic songs.

Gruppo con costumi tradizionali arbereshe