Calimera, the Griko treasure

Calimera is located in the heart of Salento, 16 km south of Lecce, and belongs to the historic region of Grecìa Salentina, a linguistic island of nine municipalities where an ancient language of Greek origin, Griko, is spoken.

The Greek-Byzantine origin of the place, on the other hand, was clearly deducible from the name, Kalimèra, from kalì emèra, which means good morning. Belonging to the feudal jurisdiction until 1599, it has known the baronies of the Hugots, the Gesualdos, the Sorianos, the Bucalis and the Cataledas. The town preserves in a niche in the public gardens a funerary stele in Attic marble donated to it by the city of Athens on which appears the inscription “foreigner you are not here in Calimera”, which seals the common origin, anchoring it to the value of hospitality.

Until the beginning of the 17th century, the popular belief was of the Byzantine Rite, even though, at the same time, the parish belonged to the diocese of Otranto, of the Latin rite. Following the rigors imposed by the Council of Trent, the Greek rite began to rapidly decline. The last Greek papas of Calimera, Sigismondo or Gismondo de Matteis, was assassinated by unknown persons and replaced by a Latin parish priest, Don Troylo Licci. The Greek temple was quickly demolished, replaced by the current matrix, and the parish archive was burned. Until the end of the 19th century, the town remained completely Hellenic-speaking, with an economy limited to the production of coal and later sweet potatoes. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the first public schools, families began to learn Italian as a second language. Starting from the post-war period and with the advent of compulsory education, parents began to no longer pass on the Greek language to their children, for fear of confusing them while at school they were taught to speak Italian correctly. Today the Griko language is included in various study paths in primary schools, aimed at recovering a tradition on which first traditional music and then tourism have rekindled the spotlight. Pier Paolo Pasolini linked his last public meeting, in Calimera, on 21 October 1975, to Griko and to the commitment aimed at valorising, and not dispersing, linguistic minorities.

Pasolini a Calimera. Foto di Antonio Tommasi

Of notable importance in the historic center is the Church of the Madonna of Constantinople, which houses a fresco of the Greek school that represents and testifies to the coexistence of the Greek rite with the Latin one; and the Church of the Immaculate, second in size after the Parish Church, built in 1636, which houses a canvas depicting the Immaculate Virgin in glory with Saint Donato, Saint Paul, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Paul and the patron saint Saint Brizio at her feet.

Located in the countryside of the immediate surrounding area, instead, are the churches of San Vito and San Biagio. The first, which is accessed from one of the entrances of the ancient Bosco di Calimera, dates back to the sixteenth century. In the center of the single nave, a pre-Christian limestone megalith, called the Sacred Rock of San Vito, protruding from the floor, is pierced in the middle. Tradition has it that on Easter Monday people pass through the hole to purify themselves, a custom that dates back to propitiatory fertility rites. The stone has the remains of the fresco depicting San Vito Martire on the upper part. The second of the churches to be found in the open Calimera countryside is located on the road to Melendugno. The semi-underground church of San Biagio, from the medieval era, is what remains of a settlement of Basilian laurels. Inside, it has an eighteenth-century fresco depicting San Biagio and Sant’Eligio. The original nucleus, the chapel itself, dates back to the year 1000.