SALENTO-ITALY

Grecìa Salentina (Griko ) is a region on the Salento peninsula in southern Italy, near the city of Lecce, inhabited by the Griko people, an ethnic Greek minority in southern Italy who speak Griko, a variant of Greek. .

The Union of Municipalities of Grecìa Salentina (Unione dei Comuni della Grecìa Salentina) is made up of eleven towns and is part of the province of Lecce in the administrative region of Apulia (Puglia) and was founded by the Griko population in 1966. The purpose of this association was to promote the knowledge of Griko and preserve its culture, by organizing research at the university, teaching the language in schools and publishing books and poetry in the endangered dialect.
The following towns are members of the Union: Calimera, Martano, Castrignano dei Greci, Corigliano d’Otranto, Melpignano, Soleto, Sternatia, Zollino, Martignano, Carpignano Salentino and Cutrofiano.