OGLIASTRA, DIOCESE of. — In the province of Nuoro, with the episcopal residence in Lanusei.
It has an area of 2,461 sq. km and a population of 55,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed among 28 parishes served by 49 diocesan priests and 8 religious priests; it has seminaries, 1 male religious community, and 8 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 299).
In the Middle Ages this eastern region of Sardinia was called Barbagia or Barbaria, a name also borne by a diocese corresponding to this territory. The diocese was created by Pope Leone XII on 11 November 1824 through the division of the archdiocese of Cagliari, at the request of Carlo Felice I, king of Sardinia, as a suffragan diocese of Cagliari, as it still is today. The first bishop was Msgr. Serafino Carchero, later transferred to Bisarchio in 1834.