Welcome to Santa Maria Assunta's Cathedral
Some Information about it
Geographic coordinates: 42°34′48.99″N 13°58′43.45″E
State: Italy
Region: Abruzzo
Location: Atri
Religion: Roman Catholic of the Roman rite
Diocese: Teramo, Atri
Consacration: 1284
Architect: Raimondo Del Poggio and Rainaldo D' Atri
Architectural style: Romanesque-Gothic
Beginning of construction: about 1260 (current church)
Completion: 1284
More about the Cathedral
The context: the Renaissance
The Renaissance is an artistic and cultural period of the European history, that it developed in Florence between the end of the Middle Ages and the art of the modern age, in a period of time ranging from the middle of the fourteenth century until the sixteenth century, with big differences between disciplines and geographical areas.
The Renaissance, lived by most of its protagonists as an age of change matured a new way of conceiving the word and oneself, developoint the ideas of humanism, born in the literary sphere in the XIV century for the reborn interest of classical studies, by Francesco Petrarca, and leading him to influence for the first time also the figurative arts and the current mentality.
An example of Renaissance work in Abruzzo is Atri Cathedral, located in Duomo Square, in front of the municipal theater.
History and construction
The first information we have on Atri's basilica cathedral comes from a papal bull of 1140, in which it is mentioned as Santa Maria de Atria and is said to be subject to the bishop of Penne. It underwent a first substantial rebuilding at the end of the twelfth century, with the contribution of the glorious school of decorators who played so large a part in the construction of the church of San Clemente in Casauria. A further operation was readied at the beginning of the next century, when the building was practically rebuilt and then reconsecrated in 1223, with a number of high prelates present.
Iconographic analysis
The church of Atri,governed by the Cistercians, while keeping intact the earlier-existing choir, was rebuilt in definitely Gothic proportions and in its structure: the pointed arches were deploved to underscore the principal compositional solutions, from the nave and two aisles( in the original church there had been nave and four aisles, and they were cadenced by round arches) to the presbytery.
After having been raised to the rank of cathedral in 1251, the church underwent in 1268 a new consolidation operation, coinciding with the erection of the new and sumptuous campanile. Element of greatest emphasis of the Atri cathedral, raised to a minor basilica in 1964, is however to be foud in the extraordinary decorative apparatus of the four portals, perfected by a group of master decorators who are referred to as members of a true school of Atri. On the facade stand out the elegantly splayed portal, whose monumentality is heightened by the sophisticated richness of the intaglios, and the rose window above it, forming a whole that is at once harmonious and balanced.
Frescoes
The most famous work of the cocathedral, which attracts many tourists and scholars, are the frescoes that adorn the walls, the columns and the choir vault, by Andrea Delitio. They are therefore known as the frescoes of the choir or as the frescoes of Andrea Delitio, considering that this great work, made up of 101 frescoes(or panels) is the master piece of this painter and is among the main artistic expressions of central Itay and southern, as well as being among the largest fresco cycles in Abruzzo.Furthermore, it is the highest expression of the Abruzzese Renaissance.
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