THE ITALIAN-ALBANIANCOLLEGE AND THE HIGH SCHOOL GYMNASIUM

"... The situation of the  college resembles the venerable structures of Oxford in that it is too good, too good to, for mere youngsters. This building, in seclusion from the world it, ITS pastoral surroundings and soul-inspiring landscape, is not an abode for boys but for philosophers, a place to fill with a wave of deep content the sage who has outgrown earthly ambitions ... "" ... the position of the Board (similar to this venerable buildings of Oxford) is too good, far too beautiful for mere boys. With its remoteness from the world, its pastoral landscape and nature around so inspiring, is a place for philosophers, not for kids, a place to be filled with that sense of deep satisfaction typical of the sage who has overcome every worldly ambition ... "

 So Norman Douglas, the Austrian writer of British origin, lover of southern Italy, in his well known travel book, "Old Calabria",  described, highlighting his impressions, the monumental and rigorous School of San Demetrio Corone, around which   the history of this centre has rotated together with that of the Arbereshe in Calabria.
 Its history begins in 1794. Sixty years earlier in San Benedetto Ullano, thanks to the interest of Pope Clement XII, in whose veins, they say,  flowed the  Arbëresh blood (from his mother’s side) a boarding school was established, to be called "Corsini", from the surname of the founder pontiff.

 At the base of its establishment there was the desire to provide the Catholic Arbereshe youth of Greek rite with free education in classical studies, science, theology and ecclesiastical rites. The aim was to confer orders among the adolescents of the Italian-Albanian communities, who wish to pursue a career in the church, according to the Byzantine rite.

 The seed left in 955  by Nilo  Malena, a monk from  Rossano, continued to produce  other fruits after the removal of the ancient abbey of Sant’Adriano. So, in 1794, the Royal Italo-Greco Collegio of Sant'Adriano replaced the old abbey to become the great protagonist not only of the local history but of the entire Italian-Albanian

ethnicity in Calabria.

 The Institute was removed from the religious community by  a royal decree of  king Ferdinand IV of Naples and assigned to the new seminary. The content of the studies, then, was characterized by a more classic and scientific inclination rather than the merely theological.

During the Napoleonic ten-year period (1805-1815), the College was elevated to be a high school of the two “Calabrie”, by a decree of  king Joachim Murat in 1812, according to a more popular  and open policy of education, thus re-formulating the School according to the new cultural expectations of the times.

 In 1815, with the return of the Bourbons to the political scene of  Southern Italy, their vengeful intentions towards this "workshop of devils" resulted in several  closure  orders, fortunately revoked by Ferdinand II due to the persistent and effective intercession of the bishop-president Bellusci. The prestigious  decree of closure is remembered in two marble headstones,  still visible in the northern facade of the church,  in Greek and Latin respectively.

  Moulded by the stern  rules and subjected to heavy  studies, which did not permit  any mediocrity, both in zeal  and in the school results, the young people educated within the walls of Sant'Adriano distinguished themselves, by their cleverness and  their seriousness in  their studies. Many of them, moreover, could get a diploma with excellent  grades and a high percentage of  them passed. Moreover, the  bishop-president  Bellusci  introduced the new figure of  the president or dean, as it would be called at the beginning of the 20^th century, whose duties were and are performed mainly in the administrative and education field.

 The ideals of the French Revolution, the secret work of the “Carbonari” and the ideas of  “Giovane Italia” (Young Italy), meanwhile, came within the walls of the   Italo-Greek Collegio of Sant'Adriano, infecting professors and students, so much as to inflame their hearts with revolutionary ideals and love towards their country.

 Many of the students in the “Collegio” of San Demetrio Corone, later, became the protagonists of the “Risorgimento Calabrese”. Their solid contribution, of forces and  bloodshed, offered by several of them for the unification of Italy did not go unnoticed by Garibaldi, who on October 1860, "in consideration of the signal services rendered by the brave and generous Albanian to the Italian cause”, decreed that 12 thousand ducats were to be immediately given  for the expansion of the “Collegio”. That decree can be still read on the marble plaque placed at the entrance of the building.

 In 1848, shortly before the Unification of Italy, the first chair of the Albanian language and literature was instituted and conferred to the poet Girolamo De Rada from MacchiaAlbanese.
 

 At the beginning of the twentieth century, by now stripped of the religious principles that were on the basis of its founding, the College was included in the political and cultural Memorandum of Agreement between the Italian government and Albania. The Institute was assigned as a place of learning for students coming from the three provinces of Calabria, Basilicata and Puglia. Among them, a dozen young Albanians  were  hosted at the expense of the Italian government, hence the addition of "International Italian-Albanian Institute of Saint Adriano”.

In June 1900, a general manager from Como,  the Royal Commissioner Angelo Scalabrini, was sent by the Ministry of Justice to run  the boarding school.

His arrival in San Demetrio Corone marked the beginning of a happy season of financial provision and significant structural and administrative modernizations.

 Free scholarships for students coming from Albania, the elimination of all forms of  ecclesiastical interference in the course of the studies as well as in the administrative powers of the boarding school,  a well equipped  meteorological observatory and the installation of a gas meter for the lighting of the building, new classrooms , toilets, a physics and a natural history laboratory put in the ground floor, and even an Agricultural School, under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture. All these were the brilliant results of the comprehensive program of strengthening and restructuring implemented by the diligent and far-sighted director  Scalabrini, completed in 1906 by the construction of a building for the residence of the headmaster of the School and the rector responsible of the College with his family.

Scalabrini’s  headmastership was also characterized by two awards which increased the prestige of the College. The first, in 1903, was the decree which  officially  recognized all the classes, obtained after several vain requests, as a result of which the boarding school became a recognized one.  Thanks to the  second award, in 1904  a normal School for male students was instituted to tackle the  rampant illiteracy in Calabria.

1923 is the year of elevation to State High School (“Liceo”), by virtue of which the boarding school passed from the Ministry of Justice to the protection and supervision of the Ministry of Education. So the School became nationalized  and the payment of salaries to the entire staff was assured by the Ministry of “Pubblica Istruzione”  (Ministry of Education), which eversince then has been the tutor organ.

 In the Fascist period, the Institute was named after the “quadrunviro” Michele Bianchi, who for some years had attended the High School.

 The boarding school ceased all its activities during the school year 1978/79, but its decline had begun years before. The rise in prices, the institution of compulsory education, the proliferation of high schools in many centres  of the district and the following drastic reduction in the number of the boarders led to its closure.

 There are many former students of the “Liceo Classico”, who come from every corner of Calabria and the nearby Lucania, and many of them have pusued their careers successfully in many different professions.

                                                                                                                      Adriano  Mazziotti