GUASTALLA, DIOCESE OF
Guastalla is a city and diocese in the province of Reggio Emilia. It covers an area of 319 sq km with a population of 70,000, all Catholic. There are 29 parishes served by 73 diocesan priests and 8 regular clergy, one seminary, one male religious community, and 33 female religious communities (1949).
The diocese was established on 13 September 1828 by Pope Leo XII at the request of Maria Luisa of Parma. The first bishop was J. Neuschel, a Hungarian. As early as 1471, Guastalla had been an *arcipreteura nullius*; before that, it had belonged to the diocese of Reggio Emilia. The name derives from the Lombards, who at the beginning of the 7th century established a military garrison here called "Warstall." It became a free commune in 1106, the county of the Torelli in 1406, and later passed to a branch of the Gonzaga (1539–1746). Its most flourishing period came under the duchy of Ferrante II in 1621. It passed to the duchy of Parma in 1748 under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle; in 1800 it was a principality for less than a month under Pauline Bonaparte, then annexed to the Kingdom of Italy. The Treaty of Fontainebleau assigned it to Maria Luisa of Parma.
The cathedral, dedicated to St Peter, is the work of Francesco di Volterra (1575) and has a single nave. To the southeast of Guastalla lies the basilica of the Pieve, built by Berengar I in 915 and consecrated in 997. Urban II held a synod there in 1095, and Paschal II convened the so-called Council of Guastalla in 1106. It was renovated in the 13th century and restored in 1930. Two rows of pillars divide it into three naves, each ending in an apse.