BRAGANZA (BRAGANÇA), DIOCESE OF. — Ancient city of Portugal, in the province of Trás-os-Montes, at an altitude of 685 m. on a hill overlooking a pleasant plain. In the ancient nucleus of the city, on high, are the castle and the Baroque church of St Mary; in the lower, more recent part, stands the Cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The diocese was erected on 10 July 1770 by the bull Pastoris aeterni of Clement XIV, through division of the see of Miranda, which, suppressed in 1780 by the bull Romanus Pontifex of Pius VI, was united to Braga as its suffragan. It has an area of 6,545 sq. km. and 213,870 inhabitants, almost all Catholic, with 315 parishes and 252 diocesan priests (1948). A Franciscan convent in Braganza is recorded as early as 1271.
The Jesuit college was transformed 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, founding there a museum of natural history and a physics laboratory. After the destruction wrought by the revolution of 1910, Mons. A. Bento Martins Júnior (1928–1932) built a new seminary. The spirit of indiscipline that has prevailed in Braganza at certain periods of its history is probably, according to A. Pimenta, to be attributed to the fact that the city was a centre of Jews. Braganza became a duchy in 1442. The head of the house ascended the throne of Portugal in 1640 under the name of John IV.
GIOVANNI MESEGUER