San Marzano, the ancient Albanian village steeped in history and liquorous effusions

San Marzano di San Giuseppe is a municipality in the upper Salento, located 134 m above sea level, on the plateau of a limestone hill of the Murge Tarantine. Together with Casalvecchio di Puglia and Chieuti it is one of the oldest Albanian centers in the region, founded at the end of the 15th century, and the largest of the Albanian colonies in Italy. Its inhabitants preserve not only the Albanian mother tongue, but also some of the customs and traditions of their country of origin, a unique case among the 14 towns founded by Albanians in the province. Only the Byzantine rite, or Greek-Catholic, typical of the Italian-Albanian community, due to ecclesiastical pressure, became extinct in the past centuries. It was the siege of the Turks in their homeland that pushed the Albanians towards these lands also thanks to the services rendered as soldiers for George Castriota Scanderbeg who in the 15th century conquered part of the territory.

The area around San Marzano was already inhabited in the Neolithic. The districts of Grotte and Neviera and the area around the Masseria Casa Rossa attest to the human presence at that time. According to some contemporary scholars, the possessions of the Roman Empire would have alternated and developed in the vicinity of the Masseria Casa Rossa, to which the toponym is probably due, from the Roman gens Marcia. In 1886 the town added its name to that of the holy carpenter as a sign of devotion. A faith that is still strong and is expressed in the days of the traditional feast of San Giuseppe, which sees the evocative procession of wood parade and the burning of traditional devotional bonfires.

Following the steps of the ancient spirituality of the town, three kilometers from the town center, you can admire the Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie, which preserves a coronation of the Virgin from the end of the 17th century. Also interesting is the Parish Church of San Carlo Borromeo, in the heart of the historic center, which has an imposing neo-Gothic facade and a bell tower from the 1700s.

Today the area is economically characterized by the cultivation of wine grapes and olives. In 1962, 19 San Marzano wine producers joined together and founded the “Cantine San Marzano”, today the cooperative has about 1200 winemakers. Since 1840 the liqueur “Elisir San Marzano Borsci” has been produced in San Marzano, which in 2017 passed under the label of the Calabrian distillery Caffo, known to most for its “Vecchio Amaro del Capo”.

The town has also been the protagonist of several films, in years when Puglia was not yet under the lens of the great Italian and European cinema. Among the most important films shot in San Marzano is “Il Generale dell’Armata Morta” from 1983, directed by Luciano Tovoli, with Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccolì and Sergio Castellitto.