ALMERIA, DIOCESI di. — In Spain, situated in the territory of the province of the same name, suffragan of Granata. Within its boundaries was the ancient see of Urci, which was restored in A., but only for a short time (1147–57). In the fifteenth century three bishops of A. are found, but they seem to have been titular bishops only. After the city’s definitive reconquest (1489), Innocent VIII restored the diocese (1492). The Catholic Monarchs endowed the cathedral, the chapter, and the parishes, and founded the convents of the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Trinitarians. The diocese achieved religious unity at the beginning of the seventeenth century with the expulsion of the « moriscos », who had resisted for more than a century the attempts made to convert them. According to the latest statistics, the diocese has an area of 6557 km², 295,000 Catholic inhabitants, 110 parishes, and 123 diocesan priests.
Monuments: the present cathedral (the mosque converted into a cathedral in 1492 was destroyed by an earthquake in 1522), in the late Gothic style, is due to Bishop Diego Fernández de Villalán (1523–56). It contains paintings by Alonso Cano, sculptures by F. Salcillo Alcaraz, and frescoes and choir stalls by Giovanni de Orea. The seminary, built by Bishop Giovanni Portocarrero (1602–30) and enlarged several times, possesses a rich library, as well as a natural-history museum established at the expense of Mons. B. Martínez y Nova (1921–34). There are two archives, the diocesan archive (from 1527 onward) and that of the chapter.
Mons. Diego Ventaja Milán, elected bishop of A. on 1 May 1935, was assassinated in 1936.