A place name originally from the suffix “atro” or “adro” referring to a term of Mediterranean substrate which became the Latin “atrium”. 

Atri grew at the top of a hill alongside a mountain path that avoided the Corno valley and linked the area around Cascia with the Nera valley at the road junction between Ponte and Cascia. At least two main paths from different eras can be identified. The road running through Atri, Giappiedi and Poggioprimocaso went over Forca Vespia before re-descending to the Nera Valley; the road that bends to the left near Giappiedi and Poggioprimocaso, goes past the church of San Fortunato, descends rapidly at Rocchetta towards Ponte and dates back to the early Middle Ages.
In a dry stone wall behind the church there remains a fragment of a sepulchral altar with a worn, illegible inscription that dates back to the ancient Roman settlement of Atri. 

The village today consists of houses and barns built in an almost straight line. At either end lie two similar, thermally separate buildings, typical of lordly country houses; one lies deserted, whereas the other has been partially, though badly restored.