 |
| Traditional Arbëresh clothing in Croatia, painting credit: East Journal |
The Arbëresh of the North comes from an Albanian population with a Catholic religion in the region of Lake Shkodra, today in Montenegro, at the time when occupied by the Ottoman Empire, which moved to the north between the XVII and XVIII centuries. While the Orthodox Arbëresh emigrated mainly to southern Italy. The first wave of migration, in 1655, went to Pula and Istria. A second wave, in 1726-27 and 1733, was supported and designed by the Archbishop of Zadar Vicko Zmajević and the Republic of Venice to repopulate the village and back area of Zadar, secondo East Journal.
 |
| Zadar Arbëresh Choir |
These groups were integrated into the social and economic sphere of Venetian Dalmatia. And if they were assimilated to other coastal cities, in Zadar they were able to preserve their language and customs, also thanks to a special solution.
In fact, the Arbëresh settled on the outskirts of Zadar on a marshy land supplied by the Venetian owner Erizzo, a locality later known as Borgo Erizzo/Varoš Eričina or Arbënesh/Arbanasi. Arbanasi would become the main economic actor in the food sector in Zadar for the next two and a half centuries.
NATIONAL ISSUES DURING HABSBURGE TIME
The "national question" that rocked Dalmatia in the late 19th century, under Habsburg rule, included also the Albanian community. In 1896 an Italian primary school was opened in Arbanasi and in 1901 a second school in Croatian and Albanian.
 |
| Giacomo Vuxani |
In 1873 the Croatian Party of Rights organized the first public event in Arbanasi, in which the leader was elected Ante Starčević, the founding father of Croatian nationalism. But there were also pro-Italians in the Albanian community. A leading Italian-Arbëresh figure was Giacomo Vuxani who promoted and organized the Italian-Albanian Association in Zadar in 1910, at a time when Italian-Albanian relations were improving throughout the region. Many Albanians associated with the National Renaissance and the development of Albanian literature after the Albanian independence of 1912 also made contacts and visited the Arbëresh in Zadar, such as Faik Konica, Shtjefën Gjeçovi, and Fan Noli. The Arbëresh themselves gave their support to the independence of Albania with a document in the Arbëresh languages, Italian and Croatian, affirming their multiple identities.
.