CASTELLANETA, Diocese of. — In the province of Taranto, on the Talvo, a tributary of the Lieto. It covers 717 sq. km., has 10 parishes, 36 diocesan priests and 9 regulars; a minor seminary; has 49,700 Catholics out of 50,000 inhabitants (1948).
It was known in the Middle Ages as Castanetum or Castanea; conquered by the Normans c. 1080, it often changed hands. The diocese was founded at the end of the 11th century; it is a suffragan of Taranto; in 1818 Pius VII, with the bull *De meliori*, united the diocese of Mottola to II.
The cathedral dates from the 12th century, rebuilt in the 15th with a 15th-century bell tower; the interior, with three naves and paired columns, was remodeled in the Baroque period; it contains many paintings by D. Carella (1797) and a polyptych by G. da S. Croce (1531). Other notable churches are S. Chiara with ogival arches and the 17th-century S. Michele.
As regards the diocese of Mottola, its first bishop died in 1040; in 1551 there was a bishop Scipione Rehiba, later cardinal; the last bishop died in 1798. The 12th-century cathedral was rebuilt in the 15th century but disfigured by Baroque alterations; the interior has three naves and is dedicated to S. Tommaso di Canterbury. In the vicinity are characteristic basilican cave churches such as that of S. Gregorio with three naves and three apses, and another of S. Nicola also with three naves and many frescoes. Another centre in the same diocese is Massafra, where are remembered the ancient Benedictine priory of S. Lucia, founded in 1081 by Riccardo, son of Count Drogone, which remained until 1609; the abbey of S. Benedetto of Benedictine nuns founded in 1787; the basilican cave church of S. Marco; the sanctuary of the Madonna della Scala in its present form of 1733 but on an earlier building, of which remains of frescoes survive.