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ATRI |
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The approach to ATRI , about 10km inland from Pineto, is like
travelling through the background of a Renaissance painting, with gently
undulating hills planted with orderly olive groves giving way to a
surrealist landscape of sleek clay gullies known as calanchi , water-eroded
into smooth ripples, wrinkles and folds. Atri's duomo contains Abruzzo's
greatest cycle of frescoes, and the town itself, with its narrow stepped
and bridged streets, is one you're likely to be reluctant to leave.
Buses drop you near Porta San Domenico , the town's only surviving
defensive gate. To get to the centre, walk through the gate and cut down
one of the narrow sidestreets to the main street, which leads up to the
central piazza, dominated by the thirteenth-century Duomo . Its facade
is understated, pierced by a rose window and perforated by the holes in
which scaffolding beams were slotted during construction. The inside is
similarly simple, with patches of frescoes on the brick columns and -
visible through glass set into the floor of the apse - an octagonal
mosaic pavement decorated with sea horses, dolphins and fish, from the
Roman baths over which the church was built. The duomo's highlight,
however, is the cycle of fifteenth-century frescoes by Andrea Delitio on
the apse walls. Delitio has been called the 'Piero della Francesca' of
Abruzzo for his sophisticated use of architecture and landscape; but in
contrast to Piero's cool intellectualism and obscure symbolism, Delitio
places the religious scenes in realistic contexts. The Birth of Mary ,
for example, has servants giving the newly born baby a bath; in the
vault the four Evangelists are placed in natural settings, the animals
that are the emblems of the saints behaving as domestic pets; and back
on the walls, the lives of the rich - especially in the Wedding at Cana
and Presentation in the Temple - contrast with the lives of the poor,
notably Mary, Joseph and the shepherds in the Nativity . The most
emotionally charged scene is the Slaughter of the Innocents , in which
the horror is intensified by the refined Renaissance architectural
setting and the fact that the massacre is coolly observed from a balcony
by Herod's party of civic bigwigs. One opulently dressed slaughterer
slices a child with chill, technical accuracy as if it were a joint of
meat; another holds a child upside down by the ankles, while the mothers
weep wretchedly over the tiny corpses.
For a touch of light relief, head back up the right-hand aisle to see a
piece of Renaissance kitsch - a font with four oversized frogs clinging
to the basin. In the cloisters is the entrance to a cavernous Roman
cistern, and there are more Roman relics outside the cathedral - the
foundations of what was possibly a dye-works, complete with a vat. The
town's two small museums (archeological and ethnographic) are both
closed for restoration, but in any case the best thing to do in Atri is
just wander around, strolling out to the belvedere for views, nosing
into the many churches, or simply sitting in a café and watching the
small-town life around you.
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