Blessed with one of the most beautiful languages, Italy is also home to a plethora of linguistic minorities, twelve to be precise, across fourteen regions, with almost three million speakers. The Occitan linguistic minority of the Alpine valleys of Piedmont and Liguria is probably one of the most well known, also because of the importance the language had in the history of European culture and literature: the Langue d’Oc and its poetry inspired the troubadours of Provence who were themselves inspiration for our Scuola Siciliana and Dolce Stil Novo. Dante was, in fact, the one to give to Occitan the name of language of Oc, from the word used to say “yes;” he also called Italian the language of Sì and French the language of Oïl. In those days, Occitan was spoken in the South of France, from the Atlantic to the Alps, but today only small pockets of Occitan-speaking people exists, mostly across the Alpine valleys of France, Liguria, Piedmont and in Guardia Piemontese, in Calabria.
How did Occitan speaking people end up from the mountains of Northern Italy to its boot?
It’s a long story, one that brings us back to the 13th century, to a religious minority and to the fact Calabria is known for being a welcoming land for all those seeking refuge, from Albanians to Roma, from Greeks to Jews. Guardia Piemontese was founded by a group of Waldensians from the Alpine valleys of Piedmont, more precisely from Bobbio Pellice. This religious movement had developed in the Cottian Alps between France and Italy towards the end of the 12th century, most likely thanks to the contributions of Peter Waldo (from whom the movement took its name). Waldensians lived a life of asceticism and poverty, but some of their more extreme views — lack of faith in transubstantiation and having associated the Catholic church with the “harlot of the Apocalypse” — turned them into religious pariah and victims of persecution across Europe. They were condemned as heretics in 1184, but their teachings kept spreading, especially in Germany and Austria and some of their ideals became pivotal also for the Protestant Reform of the 16th century.
While we know who brought the Occitan language to Calabria, we don’t know exactly when it happened. Some believe Waldensians moved to Calabria in the 13th century to escape persecution, while others, this theory being the most accredited, think they didn’t reach the South of Italy until the early 14th century and that it wasn’t religious persecution they escaped, but poverty and famine. The land of Calabria proved to be a blessing, because its fertile soil allowed the development of a prosperous community, centered on the village of La Gardia, as it was originally known, which was recognized as a local commune by Ferdinand of Aragon, King of Naples. In fact, La Gardia wasn’t the only place where the Waldensians settled, nor the only one, therefore, where Occitan was spoken: other small villages along the coast of the Riviera dei Cedri, including Montalto Uffugo, Vaccarizzo, San Vincenzo La Costa and San Sisto dei Valdesi, had Occitan connections. However, La Gardia was the only village where Occitan kept being spoken throughout the centuries, probably because of its more secluded position, high up on a hill, 514 meters above sea level and protected by defensive walls.
For the first century, the community of La Gardia cohabited peacefully with their Catholic neighbors, but things tragically changed when the Waldensians decided to join the Protestant Reform: then, they became the enemy and victims of a religious persecution that was to obliterate them in the early summer of 1561. Those tragic events are still remembered today in Guardia Piemontese, thanks to a monument called La Porta del Sangue, (the door of blood), a memento to the violence that killed so many and forced many others to conversion.
But the language of these people remained alive and still is today. Locally known as guardiolo or lingua guardiola, itis the only example of Occitan in the South of Italy; guardiolo is still very much spoken in the village city center and up to the 1950s, there were in fact three different varieties of it — quite an incredible feat, if you consider the village never had more than 2000 residents since the unification of Italy — because of the three different Piedmontese valleys from where those first Waldensian migrants came from.
Throughout the centuries, La Gardia changed its name several times, from Casale di Fuscaldo to Guardia Fiscalda, all the way to Guardia dei Valdi, Guardia Lombarda and, more recently, Guardia Piemontese, to honor the geographical origin of its founders.
Today, Guardia Piemontese is not only known for the languages its people speak and for its long, eventful history, but also for being close to a famous thermal center, the Terme Luigiane and for having a beautiful marina: the hamlet, known as Guardia Piemontese Marina, has developed only recently, to give an opening to seaside life and activity to the original village (now known as Guardia Piemontese paese).
The history of Guardia Piemontese came, perhaps, full circle when, in 1975, a large slab of Alpine rock from the Valle Pellice, the area of Piedmont the village founders came from, was placed in Piazza della Chiesa Valdese, the square were the old Waldensian church used to stand. Engraved on it, a passage from Isaiah, look to the rock from which you were cut, bears witness to the community’s will to never forget its roots. Just beneath it, a plaque remembers the names of the 118 people who were killed in 1561.
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