Mongrassano is a town and comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

of the province of Cosenza

Province of Cosenza

The Province of Cosenza is a province in the Calabria region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Cosenza.It has an area of 6,650 km², and a total population of 733,797 . It is the biggest Calabrian Province...

 in the Calabria

Calabria

Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....

 region of southern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, located 42 kilometers northwest of Cosenza

Cosenza

Cosenza is a city in southern Italy, located at the confluence of two historic rivers: the Busento and the Crathis. The municipal population is of around 70,000; the urban area, however, counts over 260,000 inhabitants...

.

The town is part of the Comunità Montana Media Valle Crate.

History

Mongrassano already existed in the 12th century as a hamlet of San Marco named Mons Crasanus, Mocrasani, Montegrassano or Magrosani. It was originally divided in two hamlets: Serra di Leo and Mongrassano. Like many other Albanian-origin settlements the urban structure was based on the gijtonia, in other words, circular streets. In either 1459 or early in the 16th century, another group of Albanian political refugees came and settled in Mongrassano.

On 20 July 1459 the Prince of Bisignano gave the civil jurisdiction of the city to the Bishop of San Marco. In 1642 the Gaetani acquired the territory; in 1688 they sold the property to the Marquesses of Fuscaldo, who held it until the end of the feudal system in 1806. In 1807 Mongrassano became state owned and in 1811 it joined with Serra di Leo. In 1816 it was elevated to the level of a comune, with Serra di Leo as its frazione

Frazione

A frazione , in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere...

.

Language and dialect

Officially the inhabitants speak Italian. Traditionally, the dialect is of Albanian origin (Arbëresh), but is spoken by an increasingly restricted number of inhabitants.

Festivals

The patron saint of Mongrassano is Saint Catherine of Siena, but the most important festival in the town is Saint Lucia that occurs during the month of August.

External links

• http://www.arbitalia.it/index.htm
• http://www.comuni-italiani.it/078/080/
• http://calabria.indettaglio.it/eng/comuni/cs/mongrassano/mongrassano.html