Today’s events celebrated cultural heritage of the Arbëresh community, also known as Albanians of Italy, an Albanian ethno-linguistic group in Southern Italy.

The calendar of events kicked off with a conference on “the Arbëresh Cultural Heritage – Work by Jeronim De Rada and Anselmo Lorecchio” at Tirana’s Polytechnic University.

The conference focused on significance of the Arbëresh Cultural Heritage and its role in preserving the traditional Italian-Albanian ties.

Prof. Matteo Mandalà, the head of the Albanian Language Department at Palermo University highlighted a series of projects implemented by this department, putting emphasis on the “BESA” project, which provides a summarization of the public and private libraries in the Arbëresh villages in Southern Italy.  He underlined importance of the publications by this unit and the role mothers can play in teaching Arberesh to their children.

In southern Italy, there is a small but well-established Albanian-speaking minority, the so-called Arbà«resh, or Italo-Albanians. The archaic Albanian language that the Arberesh community in southern Italy has preserved for more than 500 years, but it has declared as endangered minority language by UNESCO. Today, there are about 50 towns scattered throughout Southern Italy where Albanian is still to be heard. These communities, comprising an estimated Albanian-speaking population of up to 90,000 are located in several regions such as Abruzzi, Molise, Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily.

International Culture Weeks launched in Albania contribute to better knowing and strengthening the relations with international partners, as well as increase the offer of cultural activities in Albania for people of all walks of life and ages.

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