Portocannone's Arbëreshë Living Nativity

The experience

The magic of Christmas in the alleys of the ancient Borgo di Costantinopoli

An Arbëreshë living nativity scene to also bring Christmas to life through Arbëreshë culture and language.

The country of Portocannone

Portocannone is a small town in Molise in the province of Campobasso. The population has Albanian origins but did not originate with the arrival of Albanians. The Portocannone of the Latin period was razed to the ground by the violent earthquake of 1456 and was entirely rebuilt ten years later by a colony of Arbëreshë exiles during the first Albanian emigration that took place in 1461.

The first group of houses, represented today by the ancient village, consisted of 38 fires, or 38 families. The surrounding walls were represented by the houses themselves. The Borgo had two entrances, the main one consisting of a large gate surmounted by an arch and the secondary one by a smaller one.

At the entrance to the village you can visit the Church, which, as then, also serves as the center of gravity today. Built in the early 16th century for the 200 Albanians living in the locality, it has a single nave, three altars, and the vault decorations are rather modest. It has a very simple exterior facade with a fine portal in carved stone and horizontal lintel, above embellished with Syrian lintel frame with niche and votive statue.

The houses were modest, presenting a very simple architecture as they were built by the inhabitants themselves from coarse stones, wood and local earth. The rooms were limited to one or two rooms, the bedroom and the kitchen of which they also used to keep domestic animals. The typology of these constructions also represented a social structure according to an original model of a living nucleus that saw the neighborhood as a continuation of the organization of the family. The Albanian colonies formed in Italy and, therefore, also in Portocannone, were characterized by three distinctive elements: ethnicity, language and the Greek Orthodox rite.

The Arbëreshë Living Nativity.

An Arbëreshë living nativity scene is set up in this ancient Borgo, reconstructing scenes that show what were the main activities and what was the way of life of the Albanian ancestors who settled some 600 years ago in this area. You will be immersed in a magical atmosphere that will take you back in time:

Entering the Village of Constantinople from the beautiful Skanderbeg Square, you can admire numerous scenes. These include the shepherd’s house tending his animals, the tailor’s and embroiderers’ store, the carpenter’s and blacksmith’s store, the fruit seller’s and washerwoman’s. And again, the typical peasant house, the school as a place of education, the cellar as a meeting place for men after a day of hard work, the tavern, the scene of the housewives preparing scrippelle, the spice store, the Byzantine church where the marriage is celebrated with the Greek-Byzantine rite, the oil mill, and finally the nativity scene.

On the way you can taste chestnuts, hot wine and scrippelle.

Admission is free.

On the way out you can visit the Christmas market of handicrafts and food and wine.

The scheduled dates are Dec. 26 and 29 and Jan. 1 and 6 from 5 to 8 p.m.
On Jan. 6 at 4:30 p.m. you can witness the arrival of the Three Kings on horseback.