Adria

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Comune di Adria
Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Veneto
Province	Rovigo (RO)
Mayor	Antonio Lodo (since June 14, 2006)

Elevation	4 m
Area	113 km²
Population
- Total (as of December 31, 2004)	20,669
- Density	183/km²
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	45°03′N 12°03′E
Gentilic	Adriesi
Dialing code	0426
Postal code	45011
Frazioni	Baricetta, Bellombra, Bottrighe, Ca'Emo, Ca'Tron, Campelli, Canareggio, Canton, Canton Basso, Capitello, Case Beviacqua, Case Matte, Cavanella Po, Chiavica Pignatta, Corcrevà, Fasana Polesine, Fienile Santissimo, Forcarigoli, Isolella, Mazzorno Sinistro, Montefalche, Palazzon, Passetto, Piantamelon, Sabbioni, San Pietro Basso, Tiro A Segno, Valliera, Voltascirocco
Patron	San Bellino
- Day	November 26
Website: www.comune.adria.ro.it

Adria is a town in the province of Rovigo in the Veneto region of Northern Italy, situated between the mouths of the rivers Adige and Po. It is the seat of a diocese, unlike Rovigo itself.

The Etruscan city of Atria (or Adria) underlies the modern city, three to four meters below the current level. Atria (or "Hat") gave its name at any early period to the Adriatic Sea, to which it was connected through channels^[1] . Atria and Spina were the Etruscan ports and depots for Felsina (now Bologna).

1 History
2 Miscellanea
3 Notes
4 See also
5 Sources and external links

For the ecclesiastical history, see Bishopric of Adria

The Etruscan-controlled area of the Po Valley was generally known as Padan Etruria (Padan refers to the Po River), as opposed to their main concentration along the Tyrhhenian coast south of the Arno. The Villanovan culture, named for an archaeological site at the village of Villanova, near Bologna (Etruscan Felsina), flourished in this area from the 10th century until as late as the 6th century.

Mass Celtic incursions into the Po valley resulted in friction between the Gauls and Etruscans, and also intermarriage, attested by epigraphic inscriptions where Etruscan and Celtic names appear together.

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 islands^[2]. 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 lost importance to the former Greek colony Ravenna as the continued siltation of the Po delta carried the seafront farther 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 twentieth century and comprise a major part of the city museum collection of antiquities.

"Adria - (Acts 27:27; R.V., "the sea of Adria") gave its name to the Adriatic Sea, in Latin Mare (H)Adriaticum, including in Paul's time the whole of the Mediterranean lying between Crete and Sicily. It is the modern Gulf of Venice, the Mare Superum ('Upper Sea') of the Romans, between Italy and the Balkans, as distinguished from the Mare Inferum ('Lower Sea') i.e. the Tyrrhenian Sea (so named after the Tyrrhi, i.e; Etruscans) west of Italy."

^ The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites quoting Strabo( 5.1.8)), consider that Adria derived its name from the Adriatic Sea.
^ Two bands of sand dunes east of the city mark the former sea front in Etruscan-Greek times, and in Roman times.(Princeton Encyclopedia)