Vallja Shen Kostandinit

A dance that tells the story of a people

The Vallja is one of the most fascinating expressions of Arbëreshë culture: an ancient traditional dance where participants, in costume, join hand-in-hand or via handkerchiefs, forming a huge dancing serpent that winds through the village streets, while singing rhapsodies. This ritual celebrates spring and honours Giorgio Castriota Scanderbeg, the hero who resisted Ottoman expansion in Albania, keeping alive the bond with the motherland that the Albanian-speaking communities of Italy have cherished for centuries.

The festival of San Costantino Albanese

In San Costantino Albanese, in the Val Sarmento in the province of Potenza, the Vallja Shen Kostandinit event was created to rediscover and pass down this identity dance. Each edition attracts numerous Arbëreshë groups from Basilicata and Calabria — from communities like Lungro, Acquaformosa, San Martino di Finita, Santa Caterina Albanese, and Firmo — who perform together in a grand choral moment of folklore and identity.

Culture and intangible heritage

• The collective performance of the Vallja with folk groups in costume;
• The singing of rhapsodies in the Arbëreshë language;
• The meeting between the Albanian-speaking communities of Southern Italy;
• The support of the Basilicata Region for the valorisation of intangible heritage.

A living identity

The Vallja Shen Kostandinit is much more than a folkloric show: it is an act of memory and belonging, in which a small community in the Val Sarmento proudly reaffirms its Albanian roots. An event that intertwines dance, music, and culture in one of the most evocative corners of the Lucanian Pollino.