CITTANOVA dell'ESTUARIO. – It is one of the smallest cities founded, according to Venetian traditions, when the inhabitants of Opitergium were forced to seek refuge in the lagoons under Lombard pressure. It was also known by the name of Eraclea. It is impossible to determine when it became a bishopric, but certainly by the 9th century, and it was subject to the metropolitan see of Grado. In 1440 it was incorporated into the diocese of Grado.
BIBL.: P. Paschini, I vescovi di Cittanova d'Istria e di C. dell'E. durante il grande scisma, in Atti e Memorie della Società istriana di archeol., ecc., 44 (1932); V. PAVIA, Il patriarcato di Venezia, ecc., Venezia 1938, p. 120 sgg.; P. Paschini, Le origini della diocesi di Ceneda, in Miscellanea Mercati, V, Città del Vaticano 1946, pp. 145-59. Pio Paschini