Atri - Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta


Atri was known as Hadria when the Romans founded a colony here in 282BC. 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.

This fresco was created in the middle of the 14th century by an anonymous painter called "Maestro di Offida" (Master of Offida).

Only the central part of this work has been preserved and shows the nursing Madonna and Child (Madonna del Latte) between three saints.