SCALA. – A small town and ancient diocese in the province of Salerno.
The diocese was established by Pope John XV in 1087 as a suffragan of Amalfi. Its first bishop was Sergio; notable among its bishops were Alessandro I (1118); Orso (1144); Alessandro II (1171); Celestine III, who in 1191 fixed its boundaries with the bull *In Apostolicae*; Costantino (1207) and in 1227 Matteo, both of the d’Afflitto family; the Dominican Guglielmo Lombardo (1328); Giacomo Sersale of the same Order in 1343, as was Pietro d’Egidio, who increased the number of parishes in the diocese from 3 to 18; Natale d’Afflitto (1418); Matteo De Dote (1465); Giacomo Pisanello (1500); the Spaniard Ferdinando Di Castro (1511), who resigned the same year and was succeeded by the Spaniard B. Del Rio, later governor of Rome (1530); Lodovico Vannini Teodoli (1541), later bishop of Bertinoro; the Augustinian Costantino Veltrano (1552), later bishop of Cortona; the Dominican Feliciano Niguarda (1577); Francesco D’Afflitto (1583); Francesco Benini (1598), who on 3 July 1603 also became bishop of Ravello, at which date Pope Clement VIII united the two dioceses, though keeping Scala as a suffragan of Amalfi. Pius VII suppressed the two dioceses in 1818, uniting them with Amalfi. At Scala, St. Alphonsus Liguori opened the first house of his Congregation (1732).
The ancient cathedral, dedicated to St. Lawrence, was rebuilt in the 15th century and completed in 1598; it has three naves with chapels and altars from the 17th century and a crypt from the 13th; its pulpit, decorated with columns, marbles and mosaic, is noteworthy. The portal is Romanesque. In the treasury are admired a mitre from the 13th century, a 14th-century chalice and precious reliquaries.