NICOSIA, DIOCESI di. - In Sicilia (Enna), suffragan of Messina. Erected by Pio VII (17 March 1816), its first bishop, Gaetano M. Avarna, was installed there in Sept. 1818. The diocese has an area
(phot. Gab. fot. nat.)
N. (inhab. 17,479), a cliffside town between the Nebrodi and the Madonie, rises near ancient Herbita. Evangelized by s. Filippo d'Agira, it was taken from the Saracens by the Norman count Ruggero, who fortified it, embellished it, and enriched it with privileges. To Ruggero date back the construction of the church of S. Maria della Scala and the establishment of a Norman-Lombard-Venetian colony. The newcomers introduced a Gallo-Italic dialect, still spoken there today, and fostered a local devotion by erecting at the foot of the Norman fortress the small church of S. Nicola le Petit. On 7 Apr. 1267 the papal legate Rodolfo, cardinal bishop of Albano, consecrated the church of S. Maria Maggiore. Under successive foreign rules N. developed, also growing richer in sacred buildings. Next to a 13th-century tower, later used as a bell tower, arose the first core of the future cathedral (S. Nicolò del Piano), subsequently altered: thus the splendid Aragonese 14th-century portal was defaced in the late 16th century with statues on the jambs and lions at the bases. To the original two stories of the tower a third was added in the 14th century, later topped by a conical spire. In the interior of the church, notable are the wooden choir carved by Stefano and G. Battista Livolsi (17th cent.), one of Umile (v.) Pinterno da Petralia, and the marble pulpit and baptistery by Antonello Gagini. By the latter are also the marble retable with scenes from the life of the Virgin (1512) in the church of S. Maria Maggiore, rebuilt over the ancient Norman one after the landslide of 1757 that engulfed part of the town (in the choir is preserved the stall in which Carlo V sat during his passage through N. on his return from the Tunisian expedition), and several statues in the suburban 15th-century church of S. Michele (precious Gothic missal) and in that of the Carmine. Born in N. were Pope s. Leone II, s. Luca Casale abbot of the monastery of S. Filippo d'Agira, Blessed Felice, a Capuchin lay brother, and Mons. Francesco Testa, archbishop of Monreale (d. in 1773). Of the comuni that form part of its
territory, several times reorganized, currently defined by the bull of 20 Jan. 1844, worthy of mention are: Agira, which preserves the precious miter of s. Luca Casale (14th cent.) and an abbatial crosier, a masterpiece of medieval Sicilian goldsmithing, and Troina, which possesses another valuable golden crosier from the end of the 13th century.