![]() ![]() ![]() This rite used Greek in the liturgy while elements of Orthodox liturgy ended by 1600 it was replaced by standard Roman Catholic liturgy and doctrine. Orthodoxy faded, by necessity, into the Uniate Doctrine, or Rito Greco, as it is known locally. Though there were a few carefully preserved Orthodox chapels dotting the countryside, the functioning churches were all Catholic, in a delightful baroque style common to Italy, Spain, Croatia, and a few parts of Greece. The colours were the same as in Greek islands, and even the church towers recalled places in Greece which had experienced Venetian rule, such as Naxos or Corfu. The nine towns of Grecìa Salentina were part of a larger Greek language area that receded with time, and for the most part, the towns, lovely, whitewashed affairs amid olive groves clustered around a baroque church bell tower, all looked the same. Pulling off to one of them, the village of Calimera, one can be greeted by the town name and be welcomed with “ Kalos Irtet,” the local greeting in the Griko dialect. The autostrade runs through the middle of the Italian “Heel,” and only a few signs alert the driver that he is passing through Grecìa Salentina, a small oasis of Greek language and culture in the middle of the Salentine Peninsula. Grecìa Salentina, a small oasis of Greek language and culture ![]() This is why you need to head south, into Salento, to find a living link to the Byzantine past and to Hellenism in general. It seemed a typical Mediterranean port, somewhat seedy, with few monuments recalling the particular Byzantine past. Though the Crypt and the earthly remains of Saint Nicholas moved me greatly, Bari generally left me a bit non-pulsed. In a gratifying show of inter-Christian solidarity, the Crypt itself houses an Orthodox chapel, where, when I visited, two Russian monks were deep in prayer, their Slavonic cadences transporting Bari back to the Byzantine bosom, if only in supplication and incense. Then, there is Saint Nicholas, whose corpse was taken from Asia Minor by Bariot sailors and now lies in a crypt at San Nicola di Bari Basilica, a lovely Catholic Church in Bari’s old centre.Īs the patron saint of sailors, Saint Nicholas and the male and female versions of the name Nicholas are ubiquitous in Greece, and to a lesser extent, in other Orthodox countries. First, Byzantium’s political presence in Italy expired here in 1071, the last outpost to fall to the Normans. The other hellenophone area of Italy, La Grecia Bovesia, centred on the Calabrian hill town of Bova, also speaks a version of Griko.Ĭrossing the boot of Italy and the central Apennine Range, the Adriatic port of Bari is an obvious destination for two reasons. These nine villages are collectively known as La Grecìa Salentina (Salentine Greece) or, in the local dialect of Griko, “ta ennia choria.” Here, aspects of the Greek language and culture have survived over the centuries. The last enclave, Bari, fell to the Normans in 1071, and except for a brief occupation of Ancona one hundred years later, Byzantine rule never returned and southern Italy became, to use the Greek term, a hameni patrida, lost homeland. Greeks settled in southern Italy in ancient times, and their communities remained intact and loyal to the Byzantine Emperor until the Arabs evicted imperial rule from Sicily and the Normans from southern Italy. The Greek communities of Salento and Calabria in southern Italy are, however, fundamentally different. Recently, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou visited the area and was warmly welcomed by the local population.ĭue to proximity and both geographic and political ties, Italy has hosted many diaspora and autocephalous communities. With a history spanning well over two centuries, it Greek influence across southern Italy (Magna Graecia) and Sicily is known, but there is nowhere more pronounced then La Grecìa Salentina (Salentine Greece), a collection of nine villages that is a hub for the local Greek dialect known as Griko.
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