CASTELLUM NOVAS. – This locality must have been situated along the Adriatic coast not far from Càorle; others, without solid foundation, have thought of a locality near Capodistria.
s. Gregorio Magno speaks of it in his letters of May 599 and following, in connection with a bishop Giovanni of Pannonia who, taking advantage of the disturbances caused by the schism of the Three Chapters in Venetia, had settled in Càorle, which he later abandoned in order to join the schismatics. The diocese of Càorle would derive its origin from him. C. remained in the diocese of Concordia.
BIBL.: S. Gregorio, Registrum, IX, 10; X, 95-96; PL 77, 950, 1021 ff., and ed. P. Ewald-L. M. Hartmann, in MGH, Epistolae, II, pp. 152, 155; E. Degani, La diocesi di Concordia, 2nd ed., Udine 1924, p. 50 ff.; P. Paschini, Le memorie politiche e religiose del territorio friulano da Costantino a Carlo M., in Mem. stor. foragint., 8 (1912, IV); id., Storia del Friuli, I, Udine 1934, p. 105 ff.