FOGGIA, DIOCESE of. — The diocese of F., immediately subject to the Holy See, is situated in the province of the same name and is of recent foundation. On 26 June 1855, by the bull Ex hoc Summi Pontificis, Pius IX separated the collegiate church of F. from the bishopric of Troia, making it autonomous and assigning to it the abbey of S. Marco « in Lamis », formerly nullius dioeceseos, and subsequently also the well-known sanctuary of the Incoronata, with the exception of the chapel of S. Lorenzo, which remained under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Troia.
The brief succession of bishops was inaugurated by M. M. Frascolla, formerly a canon of the cathedral of Andria (1856–69), who was succeeded, in 1872, by Geremia Cosenza di Roccascalegna of the Friars Minor.
The diocese has 115,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, divided among 18 parishes, served by 66 diocesan priests and 44 religious. The present bishop of Troia, Mons. Fortunato Farina, has united the see of F. to his own ad personam (10 August 1926).
MONUMENTS. — The most distinguished monument is the Cathedral, the original nucleus of the city itself. It arose in two stages. At the site where a Byzantine image of the Madonna was discovered, and specifically in a fovea (pit or hollow, whence the name of the city), Roberto il Guiscardo erected, in the second half of the 11th century, a sanctuary—or a crypt—upon which, a century later (at the end of the 12th century), Guglielmo II il Buono began to raise the great structure. The oldest document, from the first half of the 12th century, is a diploma of Ruggero Borsa assigning to the church of S. Nicola di Bari the land of S. Maria « de Fovea ». This was the church’s first name; subsequently it was changed to Icona-Vetere and then to Madonna del Sette Veli.
The architecture of the church was strongly influenced by the nearby cathedral of Troia, drawing inspiration from indigenous Romanesque forms with Pisan and Luccan elements (receding lozenges, blind arches in successive rows, etc.), until the earthquake of 1731, when the horrendous restorations disfigured its primitive
design. Of interest inside, besides the crypt, is the chapel of the Icona Vetere with the Byzantine image.