CUNEO, DIOCESE OF. — In southern Piedmont, it borders Fossano and Saluzzo to the north, Mondovì to the east, and France to the south and west. It covers an area of 1,869 km² and has a population of 90,000, of whom 80,000 are Catholic. It comprises 71 parishes, 177 secular priests, and 42 religious (1948). Male religious institutes include the Jesuits, Orionists, Salesians, Franciscans, and Capuchins. It is a suffragan of Turin.
The city arose around 1198 and was rebuilt in 1230 by the Second Lombard League. In 1259, it submitted to Charles of Anjou and became the capital of the County of Piedmont. In 1382, it placed itself under the House of Savoy and, under their rule, endured seven victorious sieges, the most famous being those of 1557 and 1744. Its walls and citadel were demolished by Napoleon, who made the city the provincial capital. It repeatedly sought a bishop from the 14th century onward; this desire was fulfilled only by Pius VII, who erected the Diocese of Cuneo with a bull dated 17 July 1817. The church of Santa Maria del Bosco became the cathedral; originally a Benedictine priory and later a collegiate church, the episcopal residence was donated by the commune. Among its bishops were: the first, Amedeo Bruno di Samone (1817–38), celebrated by Silvio Pellico (*Le processioni*); Clemente Manzini (1844–65), esteemed by Alessandro Manzoni and Edmondo De Amicis; and Teodoro Valfré di Bonzo (1885–96), later nuncio to Vienna and a cardinal.
Saints and venerables native to Cuneo include: Bl. Angelo Carletti (d. 1495); Fra Diego da Valdieri (d. 1655); Fr. Benigno Dalmazzo (d. 1744); Felice De Andreis (d. 1820); and Brunone Lanteri (d. 1830). Many other figures deserve mention: Alardo and Giovanni di Valdieri, valiant crusaders with St Louis, the former recalled by Dante (*Inf.*, XXVIII, 18); Giorgio Saluzzo di Valgrana, prince-bishop of Lausanne, castellan of Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, and vice-chamberlain (d. 1461); Francesco de Ferraris, missionary in China in the retinue of Fr. Ricci (d. 1672); Filippo Maria Grimaldi, missionary, mathematician at the court of Peking, astronomer, writer, diplomat, and bishop-elect of Peking (d. 1712); Giuseppe Francesco Megranesio (d. 1793), author of *Pedemontium sacrum*, but famed also for his literary forgeries; Bruno Bruni, writer and editor of the works of St Maximus (d. 1796); Giovanni Alasia, apostolic vicar of Algiers and Tunis (d. 1800); Angelo della Porta, titular bishop of Thermopylae, almoner, and diplomat at the court of Naples (d. 1835); Margarita Bergesio, foundress of the sanctuary of Our Lady of Africa in Algiers and collaborator of Cardinal Lavigerie (d. 1875); Antonio Malan, apostle of the Bororo in Brazil, writer, and bishop of Petrolina (d. 1931). Also: Clemente Solaro della Margarita, statesman and writer (d. 1869); Giuseppe Barbaroux, minister, statesman, and author of the Albertine Codes (d. 1843); Sebastiano Grandis, designer of the Frejus tunnel (d. 1892); Ettore Pais, distinguished historian (d. 1939).
Notable among the archives are the Civic Archive of Cuneo (from c. 1350); those of the Curia and the Chapter (lacking documents prior to 1600); the civic library (c. 40,000 volumes); and that of the seminary (18,000 volumes).
The most ancient notable monument of Cuneo is the 13th-century church of San Francesco, with Romanesque-Gothic features and a fine marble portal of 1481. The church of Santa Croce preserves its original Gothic structure in part of the choir; the rest of the building was remodelled in the 18th century by the architect Francesco Gallo, to whom is also owed the reconstruction of the medieval church of Sant’Ambrogio. In the small sanctuary of the Madonna degli Angeli, built in 1450 but much deteriorated since, only a few remains of 15th-century frescoes survive. At Borgo San Dalmazzo is the *monasterium Sancti Dalmatii de Pedona*, also called *de Burgo Sancti Dalmatii*: a Benedictine abbey founded in the 7th century by King Agilulf and Queen Theodolinda; it belonged first to the Diocese of Asti, after 1388 to that of Mondovì, and now to Cuneo (v. Cottineau, I, cols. 440–41).