1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Atrium

ATRIUM (either from ater, black, referring to the blackening of the walls from the smoke of the hearth, or from the Greek αἴθριον, open to the sky, or from an Etruscan town, Atria, where the style of building is supposed to have originated), the principal entrance hall or court of a Roman dwelling, giving access and light to the rooms round it. The centre of the roof over the atrium was open to the sky and called the compluvium; the rain-water from the roof collected in the gutters was discharged into a marble tank underneath, which was known as the impluvium. In the early periods of Roman civilization the atrium was the common public apartment, and was used for the reception of visitors and clients, and for ordinary domestic purposes, as cooking and dining. In it were placed the ancestral pictures, the marriage-couch, the hearth and generally a small altar. At a somewhat later period, and among the wealthy, separate apartments were built for kitchens and dining-rooms, and the atrium was kept as a general reception-room for clients and visitors. There were many varieties of the atrium, depending on the way in which the roof was carried. These are described by Vitruvius under the title of cavaedium.

Other buildings, both consecrated and unconsecrated, were called by the term (corresponding to the English “hall”), such as the Atrium Vestae, where the vestal virgins lived, and the Atrium Libertatis, the residence of the censor, where Asinius Pollio established the first public library at Rome.

The word atrium in Rome had a second signification, being given to an open court with porticos round, sometimes placed in front of a temple. A similar arrangement was adopted by the early Christians with relation to the Basilica, in front of which there was an open court surrounded by colonnades or arcades. The church of San Clemente at Rome, that of Sant’ Ambrogio at Milan and the cathedral of Parenzo in Istria still retain their atria.