Mnemoteca e Biblioteche di Greci

The Mnemoteca in Greci houses the "Arbëreshë Culture and Tradition" exhibition and the "Vedovato" and "Father Leonardo De Martino" libraries.

A space dedicated to linguistic and dialectical memories, the Mnemoteca tells the socio-linguistic story of the Irpinian village, which for centuries has been intertwined with that of the Albanian community, whose soldiers came to the aid of the Aragonese during the 15th and 16th centuries, later settling in various sites in southern Italy until they integrated and merged cultures. Greci is, in fact, home to an Arbëreshë linguistic minority, the most representative feature of integration: a language that, for more than five centuries, coexisted with Italian and still retains its vitality today.

The narration of this linguistic and cultural history has been chosen to be presented in the spaces of the Mnemoteca. Here it is narrated through written and spoken sources, photos and films, using multimedia channels, in order to dynamically bring up to date the understanding of a fascinating cross-section of history, made up of words, texts, dialects and the voices of men and women of all social classes and educational levels. Given the archaeological and artistic context, the exhibition space shines a spotlight on the life of the people, in its various manifestations such as emigration, multilingualism, the earthquakes that have affected this area but, above all, it focuses attention on the interesting aspects of social life, with the ancient tradition of transhumance along the shepherd's roads, the production of local products such as wine and cheese, the harvesting of chestnuts and, last but not least, religious rituals and festivals. Next to the Mnemoteca, it is possible to visit the "Vedovato" Library and the "Father Leonardo De Martino" Municipal Library, centres for the documentation of the history of Greci and the minority cultures of the South.

This evocative leap into the past and historical memory takes the visitor on a fascinating journey in which he or she is called upon to reconstruct the stages, thanks to multimedia paths that offer the most varied insights: linguistic, artistic, archaeological and religious.