Falconara is Arbëreshë, and among the Albanian communities facing the Tyrrhenian it is the only one to have held on to both things: the language and the Greek-Byzantine rite. Serra d'Aiello and Gizzeria, on the same coast, lost their Arbëreshë identity. Local sources tell of seven Albanian families who reached Calabria in 1487, stayed thirty years at San Pietro, on the shore between San Lucido and Fiumefreddo, and moved inland at the sight of Turkish ships: the village would have been born in 1517, with the quarters of Manesato and Curtina and the first church, dedicated to Saint Athanasius. Arbëreshë is still spoken, an old variant of the Tosk of southern Albania; the signs are bilingual and the churches follow the eparchy of Lungro. The second half of the name, Albanese, was added in the 19th century.
Above the village, at Kurtina, stands the Castelluccio: a monolith some fifty metres high, with a cross on top visible from the whole village and a stairway cut to reach it. Just below is the little church of the Madonna dell'Assunta, and outside it a sculpture of the Virgin made of two stones: the body in black lava, the head and hands in white marble. In the centre of the village the church of San Michele Arcangelo, of 1611, keeps its portal from that time. At Easter the ceremony of the Motrëmat is held. The hamlet of Torremezzo, today a seaside resort, lies on the very shore the founders had left.
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📅 Every year, on the first Sunday of May and on the second Sunday of September
On the first Sunday of May and on the second Sunday of September Falconara Albanese, a municipality of 1,405 inhabitants in the province of Cosenza, celebrates its patrons the Madre del Buon Consiglio and San Michele Arcangelo.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Falconara Albanese, but an easy day trip away.
