Arbëresh
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Arbëresh: An ethnic term for the Albanian/Greek mercenaries and refugees who settled in southern Italy and Sicily during the 15th and 16th centuries, and for their descendants. The origins of the Arbëresh immigration can be found in the wars between the Angevins and Aragonese for control of the Kingdom of Naples. In 1448, the Aragonese king of Naples, Alfonso I, found himself facing a widespread revolt of pro-Angevin barons. Unable to stem the revolt on his own he turned for help to his ally, George Castriota (Alb. Gjergj Kastrioti i Krujës) (aka Skanderbeg), military commander of the Albanian Alliance. Castriota dispatched a large mercenary force (with their families) to Italy under the command of General Demetrios Reres. The arrival of the Albanians enabled Alfonso to crush the revolt and he rewarded Reres with the governorship of Calabria. The Albanians were given title to 12 Calabrian towns in which to settle: Amato, Andali, Arietta, Caraffa d’Catanzaro, Carfizzi, Gizzeria, Marcedusa, Pallagorio, S. Nicola dell’Alto, Vena, Zagarise, and Zangarona (all in the provinces of Catanzaro and Crotone).
Another group of Albanians arrived in the Regno in 1450. Led by Demetrios Reres’ sons, Giorgio and Basilio, these mercenaries and their families were dispatched to the island of Sicily to impose King Alfonso’s authority there. They were settled in three military camps in what is now the province of Palermo, which grew into the towns of Contessa Entellina, Mezzojuso, and Palazzo Adriano.
In 1458, Alfonso’s son and successor, Ferdinand (Ferrante) I faced his own baronial revolt, this one supported by an invading French army. Like his father, he turned to Castriota for help in this crisis. It was not until 1461 that a new mercenary army could be dispatched.This time Skanderbeg personally led a force of 5,000 Albanian soldiers across the Adriatic to Brindisi. From there he quickly marched to Barletta where Ferdinand was under siege. After successfully rescuing the king, Castriota was given supreme command over the royal army. On August 18, 1462, Castriota won a major victory and crushed the baronial revolt. For his services he was rewarded with title to large tracts of land in Apulia near S. Giovanni Rotondo (FG). Several centers came under his control including Troia (FG).
In 1467, Castriota was called back to Albania to face the threat of an attack by the Ottoman Turks. The soldiers and families who had come with him, however, remained in Italy in the support of the Aragonese rulers. Ferdinand allowed them to settle in Apulia on lands to the east of Taranto. Arbëresh immigrants settled in ten towns, all in the province of Taranto: Carosino, Faggino, Fragagnano, Monteiasi, Monteneosola, Roccaforzata, S. Crispini, S. Giorgio Ionico and S. Marzano.
Castriota died in Albania from malaria in 1468. Without its leader, the Albanian Alliance collapsed under Turkish pressure. A new wave of Albanians now arrived in Italy, this time not mercenaries but refugees. Among their numbers were Castiota’s wife and daughter, who found sanctuary at the royal court in Naples. This daughter later married into the Neapolitan nobility, becoming Princess Bisagnato. Skanderbeg’s son, John Castriota, who had married into the Palaeologi, the now-deposed Byzantine imperial family, also settled in the Regno. He was given a dukedom which he used as a base to organize underground resistence against the Turks in Albania.
As the Turks occupied Albania, they seized several port cities previously under Venetian control. This brought still more Albanian refugees to southern Italy who settled in Apulia, Molise, Calabria, and Sicily.
The last wave of Arbëresh immigration occurred between c1500 and 1534. Unlike the previous waves, however, these refugees came from southern and western Greece rather than Albania. They were mostly Greek soldiers and their familes who were forced to flee from the Turkish advance into their lands. The majority were members of the Stradiotti, a force of colonial light cavalry stationed in the Venetian strongholds of the Morea. As these strongholds were overcome, these troops and their dependents back further. Finally, at the beginning of the 16th century, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V recruited new Greek and Albanian mercenaries from the area. When the Stradiotti eagerly joined the Imperial service, Charles sent 200 shiploads of them to southern Italy to reinforce the defenses there against a potential Turkish attack. The common soldiers of this force were mostly Albanians while the officers and other commanders were Greeks. Others whole accompanied this force were members of Greek Byzantine noble families and even those belonging Imperial houses. Many of these noble refugees married into the southern Italian nobility. Another faction of this group of immigrants were Greek merchants, who brought their families and possessions with them. As a general rule, the Greek elements of this immigration resettled in southern Italy’s larger cities and towns. The Albanians, on the other hand, preferred to make their new homes in the small centers that had been previously given to earlier Albanian immigrants.
The Arbëresh continued to be utilized for military purposes, continuing to provide recruits to the Neapolitan army until the end of the Regno in 1860. The modern Arbëresh number between 200,000 and 800,000, depending on the source. The majority of them live in the same villages originally settled by their ancestors. They speak an archaic dialect of Albanian known as Tosca, which includes many borrowed Italian and Greek words. The dialect is divided into four sub-dialects: Sicili