Adria
Encyclopedia
Adria is a town and comune
in the province of Rovigo
in the Veneto
region of Northern Italy, situated between the mouths of the rivers Adige
and Po
.
The Etruscan
city of Adria ("Hatria") is below the modern city, three to four metres below the current level. Adria ("Hatria") may have given its name during an early period to the Adriatic Sea
, to which it was connected by channels. Adria and Spina
were the Etruscan port
s and depots for Felsina (now Bologna).
origin, during the 12-9th century BC. At that time the main stream of the Po, the Adria
channel, flowed into the sea by this area.
The Villanovan culture, named for an archaeological site at the village of Villanova, near Bologna (Etruscan Felsina), flourished in this area from the 10th until as late as the 6th century BC. The foundations of classical Atria are dated from 530 to 520 BC.
The Etruscans built the port and settlement of Adria after the channel was not the main stream anymore. During the later period of the 6th century BC the port continued to flourish.
The Etruscan-controlled area of the Po Valley was generally known as Padan Etruria
(Padan meant 'Po River
'; cf. Celtic *dānu 'river'), as opposed to their main concentration along the Tyrrhenian
coast south of the Arno.
Greeks from Aegina
and later from Syracuse by Dionysius I colonised the city making it into an emporion. Greeks had been trading with the Eneti from the sixth century BC.
Mass Celt
ic incursions into the Po valley resulted in friction between the Gauls
and Etruscans and intermarriage, attested by epigraphic inscriptions
on which Etruscan and Celtic names appear together. The city was populated by Etruscans, Eneti, Greeks and Celts.
Pliny the Elder
, a Roman author and fleet commander, wrote about a system of channels in Atria that was, "first made by the Tuscans [Etruscans], thus discharging the flow of the river across the marshes of the Atriani called the Seven Seas, with the famous harbor of the Tuscan town of Atria which formerly gave the name of Atriatic to the sea now called the Adriatic." Pliny's "Seven Seas" were interlinked coastal lagoons, separated from the open sea by sandspits and barrier island
s. The Etruscans extended this natural inland waterway with new canals to extend the navigation possibilities of the tidal reaches of the Po all the way north to Atria. As late as the time of the emperor Vespasian, shallow draft galleys could still be rowed from Ravenna
into the heart of Etruria.
Under Roman occupation the town ceded importance to the former Greek colony Ravenna
as the continued siltation
of the Po delta carried the seafront further to the east. The sea is now about 22 km from Adria.
The first exploration of ancient Atria was carried out by Carlo Bocchi and published as Importanza di Adria la Veneta. The collections of the Bocchi family were given to the public at the beginning of the 20th century and comprise a major part of the city museum collection of antiquities.
There are several ideas concerning the etymology of the ancient toponym Adria/Atria. One theory is that it derives from the Illyrian
(Venetic language
) word adur, 'water', 'sea'.
, the port of Adria had lost most of its importance. It finally declined after the total change of the local hydrography in 589, and Adria became a fief of the archdiocese of Ravenna
.
After a period as an independent commune, it was a possession of the Este of Ferrara
and, in the 16th century, of the Republic of Venice
. At that time Adria was a small village surrounded by malaria
-plagued marshes. It recovered its importance when Polesine was reclaimed in the same century.
During the Napoleonic Wars
it was first under France, then under Austria
, to which it was assigned in 1815 after the Congress of Vienna
, as part of Lombardy-Venetia.
with the following towns: Ermont
, France
Kalisz
, Poland
Lampertheim
, Germany
Maldegem
, Belgium
Rovinj
, Croatia
, since 1982
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:...
in the province of Rovigo
Province of Rovigo
The Province of Rovigo is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Rovigo.It borders on the north with the provinces of Verona, Padua and Venice, on the south with the province of Ferrara, on the west with the province of Mantua, and on the eastwith the Adriatic Sea.-...
in the Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
region of Northern Italy, situated between the mouths of the rivers Adige
Adige
The Adige is a river with its source in the Alpine province of South Tyrol near the Italian border with Austria and Switzerland. At in length, it is the second longest river in Italy, after the River Po with ....
and Po
Po River
The Po |Ligurian]]: Bodincus or Bodencus) is a river that flows either or – considering the length of the Maira, a right bank tributary – eastward across northern Italy, from a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po under the northwest face...
.
The Etruscan
Etruria
Etruria—usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia—was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna, and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...
city of Adria ("Hatria") is below the modern city, three to four metres below the current level. Adria ("Hatria") may have given its name during an early period to the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
, to which it was connected by channels. Adria and Spina
Spina
Spina was an Etruscan port city, established by the end of the 6th c. BCE, on the Adriatic at the ancient mouth of the Po, south of the lagoon which would become the site of Venice...
were the Etruscan port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
s and depots for Felsina (now Bologna).
Ancient era
The first settlements built on the area are of VeneticAdriatic Veneti
The Veneti were an ancient people who inhabited north-eastern Italy, in an area corresponding to the modern-day region of the Veneto....
origin, during the 12-9th century BC. At that time the main stream of the Po, the Adria
Adria (river)
Tartaro-Canalbianco-Po di Levante is a river of north-east Italy. It is the only river whose course runs between the Adige river and the Po river and flows into the Adriatic Sea....
channel, flowed into the sea by this area.
The Villanovan culture, named for an archaeological site at the village of Villanova, near Bologna (Etruscan Felsina), flourished in this area from the 10th until as late as the 6th century BC. The foundations of classical Atria are dated from 530 to 520 BC.
The Etruscans built the port and settlement of Adria after the channel was not the main stream anymore. During the later period of the 6th century BC the port continued to flourish.
The Etruscan-controlled area of the Po Valley was generally known as Padan Etruria
Padanian Etruria
In the 6th century BC the Etruscans expanded their power to Northern and Southern Italy, specifically towards Emilia and Campania, there they founded Etruscan dominions who are modernly known under the names of Padanian Etruria and Campanian Etruria...
(Padan meant 'Po River
Po River
The Po |Ligurian]]: Bodincus or Bodencus) is a river that flows either or – considering the length of the Maira, a right bank tributary – eastward across northern Italy, from a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po under the northwest face...
'; cf. Celtic *dānu 'river'), as opposed to their main concentration along the Tyrrhenian
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....
coast south of the Arno.
Greeks from Aegina
Aegina
Aegina is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of Aeacus, who was born in and ruled the island. During ancient times, Aegina was a rival to Athens, the great sea power of the era.-Municipality:The municipality...
and later from Syracuse by Dionysius I colonised the city making it into an emporion. Greeks had been trading with the Eneti from the sixth century BC.
Mass Celt
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic incursions into the Po valley resulted in friction between the Gauls
Gauls
The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....
and Etruscans and intermarriage, attested by epigraphic inscriptions
Epigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
on which Etruscan and Celtic names appear together. The city was populated by Etruscans, Eneti, Greeks and Celts.
Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
, a Roman author and fleet commander, wrote about a system of channels in Atria that was, "first made by the Tuscans [Etruscans], thus discharging the flow of the river across the marshes of the Atriani called the Seven Seas, with the famous harbor of the Tuscan town of Atria which formerly gave the name of Atriatic to the sea now called the Adriatic." Pliny's "Seven Seas" were interlinked coastal lagoons, separated from the open sea by sandspits and barrier island
Barrier island
Barrier islands, a coastal landform and a type of barrier system, are relatively narrow strips of sand that parallel the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a few islands to more than a dozen...
s. The Etruscans extended this natural inland waterway with new canals to extend the navigation possibilities of the tidal reaches of the Po all the way north to Atria. As late as the time of the emperor Vespasian, shallow draft galleys could still be rowed from Ravenna
Ravenna
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...
into the heart of Etruria.
Under Roman occupation the town ceded importance to the former Greek colony Ravenna
Ravenna
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...
as the continued siltation
Siltation
Siltation is the pollution of water by fine particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments, and to the increased accumulation of fine sediments on bottoms where they are undesirable...
of the Po delta carried the seafront further to the east. The sea is now about 22 km from Adria.
The first exploration of ancient Atria was carried out by Carlo Bocchi and published as Importanza di Adria la Veneta. The collections of the Bocchi family were given to the public at the beginning of the 20th century and comprise a major part of the city museum collection of antiquities.
There are several ideas concerning the etymology of the ancient toponym Adria/Atria. One theory is that it derives from the Illyrian
Illyrian languages
The Illyrian languages are a group of Indo-European languages that were spoken in the western part of the Balkans in former times by groups identified as Illyrians: Ardiaei, Delmatae, Pannonii, Autariates, Taulanti...
(Venetic language
Venetic language
Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken in ancient times in the North East of Italy and part of modern Slovenia, between the Po River delta and the southern fringe of the Alps....
) word adur, 'water', 'sea'.
Medieval and modern age
At the time of the fall of the Western Roman EmpireWestern Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....
, the port of Adria had lost most of its importance. It finally declined after the total change of the local hydrography in 589, and Adria became a fief of the archdiocese of Ravenna
Archdiocese of Ravenna
The Archdiocese of Ravenna was a Roman Catholic diocese in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The archdiocese was erected in the 1st century as a diocese, and was elevated to an archdiocese in the 5th century. Among its famous archbishops are Saint Peter Chrysologus, a Doctor of the Church, and Saint Guido...
.
After a period as an independent commune, it was a possession of the Este of Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
and, in the 16th century, of the Republic of Venice
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
. At that time Adria was a small village surrounded by malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
-plagued marshes. It recovered its importance when Polesine was reclaimed in the same century.
During the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
it was first under France, then under Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, to which it was assigned in 1815 after the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
, as part of Lombardy-Venetia.
Main sights
- Church of Santa Maria Assunta della Tomba (formerly the cathedral), of medieval origin but rebuilt in 1718. It houses an octagonal baptismal fontBaptismal fontA baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
from the 7th or 8th century, with the carved name of the 3rd bishop of Adria, Bono. Other artworks include several 15th and 16th centuries paintings, and, in the chapel, a terracotta relief depicting a Dormitio Virginis, attributed to Michele da Firenze. - Adria CathedralAdria CathedralAdria Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Adria, in the province of Rovigo and the region of Veneto, Italy...
, the New Cathedral (Cattedrale Nuova dei Santi Petro i Paulo), dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul - Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Adria
Twin towns — Sister cities
Adria is twinnedTown twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...
with the following towns: Ermont
Ermont
Ermont is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It has some around 28,000 inhabitants, which makes Ermont one of the most important city in Val d'Oise.-Transport:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Kalisz
Kalisz
Kalisz is a city in central Poland with 106,857 inhabitants , the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, the city forms a conurbation with the nearby towns of Ostrów Wielkopolski and Nowe Skalmierzyce...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
Lampertheim
Lampertheim
Lampertheim is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Lampertheim lies in the southwest corner of Hesse in the Rhine rift at the Biedensand Conservation Area and borders on Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Maldegem
Maldegem
Maldegem is a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the villages of Maldegem, Adegem and Middelburg. Kleit and Donk have always been separate hamlets of Maldegem. On January 1, 2006 Maldegem had a total population of 22,289. The total area is...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
Rovinj
Rovinj
Rovinj is a city in Croatia situated on the north Adriatic Sea with a population of 13,562 . It is located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula and is a popular tourist resort and an active fishing port...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, since 1982
External links
- Northern Etruria
- Etruscan Engineering and Agriculture
- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: "Adria"
- Richard Stillwell, ed. Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, 1976: "Adria (Atria), Veneto, Italy
- Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Adria