Adriatic Sea (Lat. Adriaticum Mare; It. Mare Adriatico)
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Adriatic Sea (Lat. Adriaticum Mare; It. Mare Adriatico):Known in Roman times as the Adria or Mare Adriaticum, it is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea that separates the Balkan Peninsula (to the E) and the Italian mainland (to the W and NW). Some Latin writers also called it mare superum (Upper Sea), while Pliny the Elder preferred the name Atriaticum. Landlocked on three sides, it is open only to the S where it connects with the Ionian Sea, through the Strait of Otranto. It measures about 804 km. (or, according to some sources, 783 km) in length and has an area of about 132,085 km². It varies in breadth from a maximum of 225 km, near its center, to only 93 km at the Strait of Otranto on its southern end. It has an average depth of 242 m. with a maximum depth of 1,399 (or 1,280) m. The Adriatic skirts S. Italy along the coasts of Abruzzo, Molise and Puglia. The most significant feature of the coastline is the Golfo di Manfredonia beside the province of Foggia. The Adriatic derives its name from that of Adria, an ancient Etruscan-Roman port city located in the modern Italian province of Rovigo, Veneto region. Adria’s name, in turn probably derives from the ancient Illyrian word adur (= water, sea). Changes in the sea level have now left the site of Adria over 20 km inland.
There are over 1,000 islands in the Adriatic, mostly off the eastern coast. Of the Italian Adriatic Islands, the Tremiti group, off the Gargano Peninsula, is the most significant.