AREQUIPA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - The city of Arequipa is located in southern Peru, at an altitude of 2,320 meters above sea level, at the foot of the Misti volcano and only 90 km in a straight line from the coast. It is the capital of the department of the same name (56,857 sq. km.). The diocese extends over an area of 103,800 sq. km., including, besides the department of A., that of Tacna and the coastal province of Moquegua, with a population of 300,000 inhabitants, divided into 88 parishes.
It was erected by Gregory XIII on 15 April 1577, at the request of Philip II, who wished to have two dioceses in Peru under royal patronage. The bull of erection was not carried out, and on 20 July 1609 Paul V issued a second one. Pius XII, with the bull Inter praecipuas, elevated it to an archiepiscopal see on 23 March 1943. Until 1929, the diocese also included the Chilean province of Arica, but an apostolic constitution of 20 December of that year incorporated the said province into the new Chilean diocese of Iquique. Besides the seminary of St. Jerome, Arequipa possesses several convents and numerous churches. The cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. From the late 1500s, Arequipa was home to a renowned Jesuit college, until the expulsion of these religious from the Spanish colonies in 1767.