CALTAGIRONE, DIOCESI di. - City of eastern Sicily. The Saracens called it Qal'at al-gīrān, that is, Castle of the Caves.
The diocese covers an area of 2,000 sq. km.; it has 38 parishes with 120 diocesan priests and 31 regular clergy; the inhabitants number 151,600, of whom 151,100 are Catholics (1948).
The ancient name of the place is unknown, but all around the present city remains have been found of a Siculo-Greek city to the west, a Greek necropolis to the south, and a Siculian one to the east. Archaeological material has been found especially in the areas of Vallata del Signore, Cotomino, Cotominello, and 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 into Norman possession at the end of the 11th century; but of the medieval city too, only a few church portals remain, because the city was devastated by the earthquakes of 1542 and 1693.
Both the church of S. Giacomo and that of S. Francesco date from the 18th century, as does the basilica of S. Maria di Gesù outside the city, with its splendid majolica ware, the product of flourishing local art. C. was erected as a diocese only on 12 Sept. 1818, as a suffragan of Monreale and, from 1844, of Siracusa; its first bishop was Mons. Gaetano Trigona (1818-1832), later cardinal (1834). The Cathedral, S. Giuliano, had already been raised to the status of a collegiate church by Urbano VIII in 1631.