Piana degli Albanesi

Piana degli Albanesi sits at 720 meters on a plateau twenty-four kilometers south of Palermo, encircled by mountains on the eastern flank of Pizzuta. Hora e Arbëreshëvet in arbëresh, the town is the largest and most populous Arbëresh settlement in Sicily, founded in the late fifteenth century by Albanians fleeing the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, including nobles and relatives of Skanderbeg. Five centuries later the community still speaks the Albanian of its founders, follows the Byzantine Greek rite, and wears traditional costumes on feast days. The Cattedrale di San Demetrio Megalomartire is the seat of the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi, part of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church. The Byzantine liturgical singing of the town is on the Intangible Heritage Registry of Sicily. The Lago di Piana, an artificial reservoir at 612 meters with 3.1 square kilometers of surface, sits below the town, built to generate electricity and irrigate the plain.