Atri - Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta

Atri was known as Hadria, when the Romans founded a colony here in 282BC. Actually Roman emperor Hadrian's family originally derived from this place. After the fall of the Roman Imperium, the Lombards established hegemony over the area in the 6th century and Atri got annexed to the Duchy of Spoleto. The Lombards were displaced by the Normans, whose noble House of Acquaviva family ruled the town from about 1393, before merging their lands into the Kingdom of Naples in 1757.

The present cathedral has several predecessor buildings, that were founded in the ruins of a Roman thermal from the 2nd century. It was consecrated in 1223. Reconstructions occurred during the following two centuries. The sober white stone façade has a large portal designed by Raimondo del Poggio and Rainaldo d'Atri between 1288 and 1305.
The interior of the cathedral was once covered with frescoes. Some were rediscovered in the 19th and 20th centuries under a thick layer of plaster.

From the 13th century comes "The Meeting of the Three Living and the Three Dead." The story goes back to a legend that tells how three noblemen meet three dead while hunting. The living are on the right (with horses and servants). On the left side are the dead. Two skeletons are standing, the third is just coming out of the coffin.

The motif is a "Memento Mori", which found its climax in the many "Danse Macabre" (Dance of Death) in the times of the plague.