AREQUIPA, ARCIDIOCESI di. – The city of Arequipa lies in southern Peru, 2,320 meters above sea level, at the foot of the Misti volcano and only 90 km. as the crow flies from the coast. It is the capital of the department of the same name (56,857 sq. km.). The diocese covers an area of 103,800 sq. km., comprising, in addition to the department of A., that of Tacna and the coastal province of Moquegua, with a population of 300,000 inhabitants, divided among 88 parishes.
It was erected by Gregory XIII on 15 April 1577, at the request of Philip II, who wanted two dioceses in Peru under royal patronage. The bull of erection was not implemented, and on 20 July 1609 Paul V published a second one. Pius XII, by the bull Inter praecipuas, on 23 March 1943 raised it to an archiepiscopal see. 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. A. possesses, in addition to the seminary of S. Jerónimo, several convents and numerous churches. The Cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. From the end of the 1500s, A. was home to a renowned Jesuit college, until those religious were expelled from the Spanish colonies (1767).