NARDÒ, DIOCESI di. — City and diocese in the province of Lecce.
It has an area of over 534 sq. km, with a population of 140,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed among 26 parishes, served by 94 diocesan and 26 regular priests. It has a seminary, 5 male and 18 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 284).
HISTORY. - The origin of the diocese is obscured by legends that flourished amid the turbulent events the city experienced during the Middle Ages. A Byzantine possession since the fall of the Roman Empire, N. remained tenaciously Greek for a long time. Its episcopate already existed in the eighth century, when groups of Basilian exiles from Constantinople arrived and, in 761, succeeded in obtaining from Paul I the suspension of the appointment of a new bishop and the transformation of the episcopal residence into a monastery, with all the rights and revenues of the abolished episcopal see. From the eighth to the eleventh century, Greek priors governed the Neritine see as a suffragan of Brindisi. In 1090 Urban II replaced them in the government of the diocese with the Benedictines, who, shortly thereafter, obtained from his successor Paschal II the appointment of an abbot with episcopal jurisdiction. The granting of these rights gave rise to lengthy disputes with the neighboring bishops, particularly those of Gallipoli and Brindisi, but always without result: every pontiff confirmed the authority of the Benedictine abbot. The work of Latinization, begun with the Norman occupation (1055), received a decisive impetus from the reform of Cardinal Rodolfo, sent as apostolic visitor in 1267 by Clement IV following disturbances between the adherents of the two rites. The most notable result was the establishment of a double Greek and Latin archpriesthood; the Latin archpriest took the title of maximus. The coexistence of the two rites lasted a long time in the church and throughout the territory of the diocese: during Greek celebrations of the Epiphany or Latin celebrations of Pentecost, sometimes one group and sometimes the other would assist at them. Harmony was disturbed by the schism of Clement VII, who in 1388 appointed Matteo De Castells bishop of N.; he was deposed in 1401 by Boniface IX. The see, beset by disorder, was placed under the authority of the archbishop of Otranto, who attempted several times, but in vain, to suppress the Greek rite, which nevertheless had 16 colonies in the diocese. The Benedictines themselves helped to nullify every effort. Finally, in 1413, John XXIII restored the episcopal see and elected as its first bishop Giovanni Epifani, the Benedictine abbot who defended the Basilians, confirming the see’s independence and the privileges that had been granted. Among his successors, Fabio Chigi (1634), who later became Alexander VII, is remembered. The see is immediately subject to the Holy See.
MONUMENTS. – The most noteworthy monument is the Cathedral dedicated to the B. M. V. ASSENZA, probably built in the Norman period on the remains of a destroyed Basilian church. Rebuilt in 1230 after the earthquake, it was so extensively altered in 1725 by Bishop Sanfelice that it completely lost its original appearance. Only the most recent restorations (1892–1900) restored its original Romanesque lines. On the exterior, noteworthy are the series of small arches along the right side of the nave and the fourteenth-century apses; inside, the contrast between the Romanesque arcades on the right and the Gothic ones on the left, the latter resulting from the restorations of the thirteenth century. Also of interest in the same church are the composite pillars, decorated with fourteenth-century frescoes in which tenacious Byzantine reminiscences survive; two canvases by Sanfelice; an S. Michele, perhaps by Solimena; and the Black Crucifix, a cedar sculpture which, according to a pious legend, bled during the Saracen sack (901). The frescoes in the choir are by C. Maccari (1899–1900).
Among the other churches, mention should be made of those of the Immacolata and S. Teresa, and especially of S. Domenico, dating from the sixteenth century. Its façade, rebuilt after the earthquake of 1743, is a typical example of the ostentatious and paradoxical Baroque that flourished in the Lecce area during that century of artistic excesses. Finally, the Osanna is of interest: an octagonal shrine, perhaps dating from 1603, with pointed arches supporting a small dome decorated with pinnacles.