adria_history_of_the_town

 

ADRIA - ITALY

 

The History

 

The ancient town of Adria

 

The extreme northern Adriatic area, where the gulf of Venice forms, has always represented an important trade point. The position lent itself favourably to the  foundation of a port and, in fact, it was here that the port  of Adria sprung up. The town became  so prosperous that it gave the adjacent sea name Adriatic.

The most ancient archaeological finds concerting the port activity in Adria date back to the 6th    century B.C. Nothing remains of the Neolithic and Palaeolithic and there are few traces of the Bronze Age.

However, this does not mean that the territory was not inhabited before the 6th  century B.C. as the frequent sea breaches, floods with their alluvial deposits and bradyseism may well have swept away or buried what remained of these civilizations under the mud. Not only did the port have the advantage of  being close to the sea, but it also lay on a Po branch called Atrianos or Adrias. All around spread stretches of  lagoon water, the Atrainorum paludes, which the Roman historian Pliny defines as Septem Maria, out of which emerged fertile and cultivated lands.

 

             

The origin of the town is a much-discussed question as our territory was populated by several civilization, thus making of Adria a cosmopolitan town. There are also contrasting opinions about the origin of the name. It may come from the Etruscan word atrium, making Adria the town of the sun or of the east. As a matter of fact the Etruscans, like all the ancient civilizations, used to orient the vestibule of their temples and tombs towards the rising sun.

The basic population  of Adria and of its territory was likely to be Paleo-Venetian. With the coming of the Greeks at the beginning of the 6th century B.C. the development of the town boomed. They probably did not settle down there but merely made Adria an emporium, the starting-point of good towards the hinterland. At the end of the 6th century B.C.  the Etruscans arrived in search of the power they had lost on the southern Tyrrhenian coast. Unlike the Greeks, their major concer was land-reclamation. Perhaps they connected the five Po mouths by a transversal canal thus making inland navigation between Adria and Mantova possible. The decline of the port began in the second half of the 5th century B.C. because of the growing development of Spina.

 

After a Syracusan period, the Celts settled down here without bringing about substantial changes. They ended up living in harmony with the local civilizations. In the II century B.C. the Romans settled down peacefully. In 49 B.C. Adria became municipium of the Camilia tribe. They must have held Adria in high consideration if they equipped it with a road network as is witnessed by a milestone discovered in 1844 next to the Basilica of the Tomb. It is possible to read the name of the consul, Publius Popilius,who ordered the via Popilia; linking Rimini to Aquileia, to be built in 132-131 B.C. the other significant aspect of the Roman civilization was the continuation of the land-reclamation works begun by the Etruscans. The first century A.D. saw the peak of prosperity for Adria followed by its slow decay as the Roman Empire declined.

 

 

From the end of the Roman Empire to the Estensi of Ferrara

 

It is difficult to trace the history of Adria from the decline of the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages. The port increasingly lost importance. Nevertheless, the town did not disappear completely thanks to marshes acting as a natural defence against the Barbarian invasions. It was one of the first Palaeo-Christian diocesers.

Between the 5th and 6th centuries, after a short Gothic domination, the relations between Ravenna, the capital of the Western Empire and Adria, an important boudary  zone against the Longobards, became more frequent.

The tragic events which characterized the long Gothic-Byzantine domination, epidemics and floods such as the Rotta della Cucca (589), heightened the importance of the bishop.

Towards the end of the 7th  century, when the Franks yielded the Exarchate grounds to the Pope, the bishop of Adria, as a direct representative of the Pope and heir to the ancient Roman municipium, assumed the dual spiritual and temporal authority.

With the decline of the bishops and the birth of the Comunes, Adria enjoyed a certain autonomy. Towards 1100 the town was problaby ruled by its own statutes and councils.

As a result of the ruinous Ficarolo Breach, which occured in the mid-12th century, the Delta assumed its present aspect.

With the Estensi of Ferrara (13th-16th centuries), land-reclamation works were carried on.

Nevertheless a real solution to the hydraulic problems was not attained. After  having become the battle -field between Ferrara and Venice, only with the Pace of Noyon (1516) and the definitive passage of the Polesine to the Venetians, did the town experience a period of welfare which was to last for three centuries.

 

 

 

 

From the domination of Venice to the Unity

 

The Venetians were interested in the Polesine because it bordered on Ferrara and because they hoped to avoid the filling up of their lagoon by radical works on te Po river.

The most important intervention was the Taglio di Porto Viro finished in 1604 wich diverted a Po branch towards the Goro ilk thus saving the Venice lagoon. The greater hydraulic stability brought about an improvement in the economic situation. In 1797 Adria was conquered by the French who were welcomed with enthusiasm in the hope of beginning a new era. But soon hope was replaced by disappointment: the increasingly oppressive measures of the new masters provoked a general rebellion in the north of Italy. With the coming of the Austrians (1813) discontent was rife at Adria, as in the rest of the nation, bringing about and independence wars. Only the middle and upper classes took part in the risings of the Risorgimento.

The soul of the conspiracy was Angelo Scarsellini, backed up by the students Bortolo Lupati, the bold Pietro Pegolini, Dr. Alfonso Turri, Don Costante Businaro and the count Lavia. In 1866 the Polesine came to be part of the Kingdom of Italy.

 

 

 

 

The present-day town

 

 

 

 

The second half of the 19th century was characterized by mechanical land-reclamation works made possible by increasingly powerful hydraulic machines.

At the same time cultural and social initiatives became more frequent. But, above all, means of communication improved, solving the problem of isolation and contributing decisively to developing trade. Between the end of the 19th century and the First World War, Adria became a corn market.

Besides corn, wheat, oats, rice, fruits, poultry and eggs were traded. Goods were unloaded at the S. Andrea bridge, where the canal was deep enough to sustaine the weight of boats, and stored in the warehouses standing along the riviera.

 

 During the early post-war period and during Fascism the town continued in its role as a trade center but the Second World War curbed its development: roads were in bud condition, means of transport were inadequate and bridges were destroyed. The slow economic recovery came to a halt because of the flood of 1951 that provoked an exodus without return of many inhabitants. In order to improve economy the Ente Delta Padano divided the vast estate into small farms which were mostly assigned to labourers.

 

 

In recent years Adria has recovered its ancient vocation of trade centre, as is testified by Il Porto, a complex consisting of more than forty shops.

In addition to large-scale distributions, small and medium activities still exist in the heart of the town.

The resources of the town are trade, farming, handicraft, services and tourism.

 

 

see also monuments

 

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