BOVINO, DIOCESE of. — A town in the province of Foggia, on the spur between the valley of the Cervaro and the Biletra valley. The long, narrow gorge known as the Vallo di B. links the basin of Benevento with Apulia. The territory of the present-day diocese of B. was included within that of the ancient diocese of Aeca, a city probably destroyed during the 7th century. By the middle of the 10th century B. was included, together with other places in Apulia, in the territory of Benevento. Besieged by Otto I in 969 and 970, it remained under the Byzantines, and it was at this time that it was constituted as a diocese included in the metropolitan see of Benevento. It passed under the Normans of Apulia in 1047. No certain bishops are known before 971; the first was a Giovanni mentioned in a document dating from that period. Among the earliest bishops was also a Ugo, whose name is recorded on two tablets preserved locally. The bishops of B. included Cardinal Benedetto Accolti and Gabriele Marini. The establishment of the seminary (1601) was due to Bishop Paolo Tolosa.
There still exists in the diocese a municipality, Castelluccio de' Sauri, whose inhabitants speak Greek and follow the Byzantine rite; they are Epirotes who took refuge there in the 15th century.
The Cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin of the Assumption and to
S. Marco, is of Byzantine origin. Begun in 905, it was rebuilt in the 12th–13th centuries. It has three fine ogival portals and a notable wooden choir. It was damaged by the earthquake of 1930. The tomb of S. Marco, bishop of Aeca, was located in B.; his remains are said to have been transferred there after the destruction of that city.
The diocese of B. is suffragan to Benevento; it has 12 parishes, some in the province of Foggia and some in that of Avellino, 23 diocesan priests and 8 religious priests, and 35,000 inhabitants, all Catholics (1948).
Noemi Crostarosa Scipioni