RIOBAMBA (BOLIVAR), DIOCESE of. – 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 Catholics; it has 40 parishes, 54 diocesan priests and 40 religious, and 10 seminarians.
The diocese of R., suffragan of Quito, was elevated to a diocese by Pius IX on 5 Jan. 1863. The ancient city of R. was the capital of the Kingdom of Puruha before the conquest by the Incas, but it was destroyed in 1533. It was again devastated by an earthquake in 1797 (4 Feb.) and then rebuilt on its present site.
BIBL.: Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 339; Mac Erlean, s. v., in Cath. Enc., XIII, p. 61; Ruben Vargas Ugarte, Historia del culto de María en Iberoamerica y de sus imágenes y santuarios más celebrados, 2ª ed., Buenos Aires 1947, p. 454 ff.