CASTELLANETA, DIOCESE OF. - In the province of Taranto, on the Talvo, a tributary of the Lieto. It extends over 717 sq km, with 10 parishes, 36 diocesan priests and 9 regulars; a minor seminary; it has 49,700 Catholics out of 50,000 inhabitants (1948).
It was known in the Middle Ages by the name of Castanetum or Castanea; conquered by the Normans around 1080, it frequently changed lords. 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 to it the diocese of Mottola.
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 reworked in the Baroque age; it contains many canvases by D. Carella (1797) and a polyptych by G. da S. Croce (1531). Other notable churches are S. Chiara with ogival little arches and S. Michele, of the 17th century.
As regards the diocese of Mottola, its first bishop died in 1040; in 1551 there was a bishop Scipione Rebiba, later cardinal; the last bishop died in 1798. The Cathedral of the 12th century was rebuilt in the 15th century but disfigured by Baroque reworkings; the interior has three naves; it is dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury. In the surroundings are found the characteristic crypts or Basilian laure, such as, for example, that of S. Gregorio with three naves and three apses, and the other of S. Nicola likewise with three naves and many frescoes. Another center in the same diocese is Massafra, in which are remembered the ancient Benedictine priory of S. Lucia, founded in 1081 by Richard, son of Count Drogo, which remained until 1609; the abbey of S. Benedetto of Benedictine nuns founded in 1767; the Basilian crypt of S. Marco; the sanctuary of the Madonna della Scala in its present form of 1735 but on an earlier building, of which remains of frescoes survive.
Enrico Josi