The hills north-east of Bisignano were divided into five hamlets belonging to the bishops of Bisignano ever since a bull of Celestine III in 1192. The plague of the mid-fourteenth century emptied them, and the earthquakes finished the work: the bishops' fiefs were left desolate and unproductive, and that is why from 1472 bishop Giovanni Frangipani encouraged a group of Albanians arrived from Epirus to settle on his lands. An inscription of 1622 in the bishops' palace dated their arrival a hundred and fifty years earlier: that is, exactly 1472.
The Albanians found themselves owing tithes to two masters at once, the bishop and the prince of Bisignano, and they defended themselves with paper: on the first of August 1530 they drew up capitulations at Morano with prince Pietro Antonio Sanseverino, and in 1586 further statutes with the bishop. In 1543, however, the people of the neighbouring hamlet of Pedilati chose another way: in protest against the taxes they burned their own village and moved to Santa Sofia, which thus reached ninety-six hearths, about two hundred and ninety-six inhabitants. The comune is still Arbëresh: Albanian is spoken, the Byzantine-Greek rite is followed, there is a museum of Albanian costume and there are groups that sing the traditional polyvocal songs.
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📅 Every year, on 30 September
On 30 September Santa Sofia d'Epiro celebrates Saint Sophia the Martyr, who gives the town its name; the municipality is Arbëresh, founded by Albanian refugees, and the Arbëreshe Museum at Palazzo Bugliari preserves traditional dress.
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 Santa Sofia d'Epiro, but an easy day trip away.
