Riobamba (Bolivar), Diocese of. - A city and diocese east-northeast of Guayaquil (Ecuador, South America).
The diocese covers a territory of 11,015 sq. km. with a total population of 374,000 inhabitants, of whom 373,000 are Catholic; it has 40 parishes, 54 diocesan priests and 40 religious, 10 seminarians.
The diocese of R. is a suffragan of Quito; it was elevated to a diocese by Pius IX on January 5, 1863. The ancient city of R. was the capital of the Kingdom of Puruha before the conquest of the Incas, but it was destroyed in 1533. It was again ruined by an earthquake on February 4, 1797, and then rebuilt in its present location.
BIBL.: Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 339; Mac Erlean, s. V. in Cath. Enc., XIII, p. 61; Rubén Vargas Ugarte, Historia del culto de María en Iberoamérica y de sus imágenes y santuarios más celebrados, 2nd ed., Buenos Aires 1947, pp. 454 ff. SGG.