San Martino di Finita
San Martino di Finita: the history of a municipality of Albanian origins
San Martino di Finita, also known as Shën Mërtiri in the Arbëreshë language, is a municipality in the province of Cosenza located on the inland side of the Calabrian Coastal Range. Founded by Albanian refugees at the end of the fifteenth century, this municipality of 980 inhabitants maintains the traditional Arbëreshë language and customs, and is surrounded by lush natural surroundings. Let's take a closer look.
Physical geography
San Martino di Finita is located on the inland slopes of the Coastal Range, in the middle valley of the Crati River, at an altitude of 550 meters above sea level. The town is surrounded by a natural environment near the valley of the Finita river to the north and that of the Coscinello stream to the south. Surrounded by centuries-old chestnut woods, it is inserted, not only geographically, in the area of Arbëreshë communities of the Sinistra del Crati Valley, together with other municipalities such as Rota Greca, San Benedetto Ullano, and Mongrassano.
Territory
San Martino di Finita is mainly hilly and mountainous, with an altitude ranging from 114 to 1328 meters above sea level. The only flat area is that of the Brugnano district, downstream of the town, which covers an area of about 3 km². The larger surface area is represented by chestnut and beech forests.
Hydrogeological instability
Like many other towns in the Calabrian Coastal Range, San Martino di Finita is subject to the risk of landslides and subsidence that could directly affect inhabited buildings. After the tragic landslide of March 2005 that made Cavallerizzo, a small fraction of the municipality of Cerzeto, uninhabitable, the issue of securing the town has become relevant again. Landslides, although of lesser extent and more localized, also affect the Santa Maria fraction.
Origin of the name
The name of San Martino di Finita comes from the homonymous Saint to whom the San Martino church was dedicated, probably located near the current inhabited center, in a place called San Martino Vecchio, in the communal cadastre of 1825. The second part of the toponym, Finita, is constituted by the name of the nearby flowing stream.
Arbëreshë culture and tradition
San Martino di Finita is a municipality that stands out for the preservation of the Arbëreshë language and traditional customs. The Arbëreshë are an ethnic-linguistic minority that settled in southern Italy starting from the fifteenth century. They preserved their own traditions and customs, maintaining a traditional liturgical rite of Byzantine origin as well.
The Arbëreshë language
The Arbëreshë language is of Albanian origin and constitutes an important cultural heritage. Although it is in danger of extinction, the inhabitants of San Martino di Finita try to keep their language alive by passing it on to young people and promoting Arbëreshë culture.
Liturgical rite
The Byzantine liturgical rite, which was practiced by the Arbëreshë, passed to the Latin rite in 1643. This happened because the papades, the Greek rite priests, had to go to Greece for adequate training, and almost all of them remained there. Despite this, San Martino di Finita is still linked to the Byzantine tradition, as demonstrated by the sanctuary of Santa Maria di Finita, which preserves its typical architecture.
Conclusions
San Martino di Finita is a municipality that represents a cultural rarity in Italy, still very much attached to Arbëreshë tradition and language. It preserves the memory of a millennial culture, settled in southern Italy precisely due to the Albanian Ottoman invasion. The preservation of this ethnic-linguistic minority is extremely important from a cultural standpoint and constitutes an invaluable heritage for all humanity.
