CALTAGIRONE, DIOCESE OF. - City of eastern Sicily. The Saracens called it Qal'at al-gīrān, that is, castle of the Caves.
The diocese measures 2000 sq km in area; it has 38 parishes with 120 diocesan priests and 31 regulars; the inhabitants number 151,600, of whom 151,100 are Catholics (1948).
The ancient name of the place is not known, but all around the present city vestiges have been found of a Siculo-Greek city to the west, of a Greek necropolis to the south and a Sicel one to the east. Archaeological material has been found especially in the zones Vallata del Signore, Cotomino, Cotominello, Racimeri; a Byzantine castle has been identified 20 km to the east, at Piano dei Casazzi. Occupied by the Saracens in the 9th century, it came at the end of the 11th century into the possession of the Normans; but of the medieval city too nothing remains but a few portals in the churches, because the city was devastated by the earthquakes of 1542 and 1693.
Both the church of S. Giacomo and that of S. Francesco are of the 18th century, as is also the basilica of S. Maria di Gesù outside the city, with its gleaming majolicas of a flourishing local art. C. was erected as a diocese only on 12 Sept. 1818 as a suffragan of Monreale and from 1844 of Syracuse; the first bishop was Msgr. Gaetano Trigona (1818-1832), later cardinal (1834). The Cathedral, S. Giuliano, had already been erected as a collegiate church by Urban VIII in 1631.
Bibliography
Enrico Josi