Valdese, NC had its annual festival yesterday. It is located immediately west of Hickory, NC on I-40.
This town was settled by a group of “Protestants” from the Alps in Northern Italy seeking liberty and opportunity. This group was called the Waldensians; and it had its roots in the teaching and leadership of Peter Waldo who dated way back to the 1100’s during the Middle Ages, well before the actual Protestant Reformation. I found it fascinating this group was espousing Reformation ideas prior to Martin Luther. They are therefore referred to as “proto-Protestants“.
Crushing persecution had faced them at times in Europe.
The town has a heritage museum. It turns out Waldo and later the group of believers that espoused his principles also had settled in France, Switzerland and southern Italy (Calabria) before some of them came to Valdese, NC.
Although it is a small town, it has a couple of significant employers that originally were businesses started up by the Waldensians in Valdese. These include Valdese Weavers— a textile company that figured out how to survive in the face of globalism– and Bimbo Bakeries, a Mexican conglomerate that mass produces bread and other snacks locally.