ADRIA (anc. Atria; the form Adria or Hadria is less correct: Hatria was a town in Picenum, the modern Atri), a town and episcopal see of Venetia, Italy, in the province of Rovigo, 15 m. E. by rail from the town of Rovigo. It is situated between the mouths of the Adige and the Po, about 1312 m. from the sea and but 13 ft. above it. Pop. (1901) 15,678. The town occupies the site of the ancient Atria, which gave its name to the Adriatic. Its origin is variously ascribed by ancient writers, but it was probably a Venetian, i.e. Illyrian, not an Etruscan, foundation—still less a foundation of Dionysius I. of Syracuse. Imported vases of the second half of the 5th century B.C. prove the existence of trade with Greece at that period; and the town was famous in Aristotle’s day for a special breed of fowls. Even at that period, however, the silt brought down by the rivers rendered access to the harbour difficult, and the historian Philistus excavated a canal to give free access to the sea. This was still open in the imperial period, and the town, which was a municipium, possessed its own gild of sailors; but its importance gradually decreased. Its remains lie from 10 to 20 ft. below the modern level. The Museo Civico and the Bocchi collection contain antiquities.
See R. Schöne, Le antichitá del Museo Bocchi di Adria (Rome, 1878). (T. As.)