Arbëria is an ancient word, preceding Shqipëri (Albania), and preserves a deep memory of Albanian history. For centuries, “Arbër and Arbëresh” was the way Albanians referred to themselves, their language (arbënisht), and their homeland: from Gjon Buzuku in the 16th century, to the Kuvendi i Arbërit (1703), up to the National Renaissance, also strengthened by ‘Albanian intellectuals of Italy’ such as Girolamo De Rada. In the twentieth century, scholars and poets like Giuseppe Schirò and Eqrem Çabej confirmed that Arbëria remains a living idea, capable of uniting Albanians beyond borders.

It is therefore not a precise geographical location: Arbëria is a shared heritage, a cultural and spiritual homeland of the diaspora — from the Arbëresh of Italy, who continue to call themselves this, maintaining the connection with their ‘homeland of the heart,’ to the Arvanites of Greece and beyond. It is this heritage that Made in Arbëria refers to