BRAGANZA (BRAGANÇA), DIOCESE of. - An ancient city of Portugal, in the province of Trás-os-Montes, 685 m. above sea level, on a hill overlooking a pleasant plain. In the ancient upper quarter of the city are the castle and the baroque church of S. Maria; in the lower, more recent part is the Cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
The diocese was erected on 10 July 1770 by the bull Pastoris aeterni of Clemente XIV, through the division of Miranda, which, suppressed in 1780 by the bull Romanus Pontifex of Pio VI, was united to B., a suffragan of Braga. It has an area of 6,545 sq. km. and 213,870 inhabitants, almost all Catholics, with 315 parishes and 252 diocesan priests (1948). As early as 1271 there is record of a Franciscan convent in B.
The Jesuit college was converted into a seminary; suppressed in 1834 by the liberal revolution, it was restored in 1852, and later mons. Giuseppe Alvez de Mariz (1885-1912) made further improvements to it, establishing there a museum of natural history and a physics laboratory. After its destruction by the revolution of 1910, mons. A. Bento Martins Junior (1928-1932) built a new seminary. The spirit of indiscipline that prevailed in B. during certain periods of its history was probably due, according to A. Pimenta, to the fact that the city was a centre of Jews. B. has been a duchy since 1442. The head of the house ascended the throne of Portugal in 1640 under the name of Giovanni IV.