SEGOVIA, DIOCESE OF. – Diocese and city in Spain, a suffragan of Valladolid, situated almost entirely within the civil province of the same name, with the exception of a few parishes located in those of Burgos and Ávila.
It covers an area of 6,827 sq. km., with a population of 220,000 inhabitants, all Catholic, distributed across 290 parishes, served by 310 diocesan priests and 45 religious. It has a seminary, 12 male religious communities, and 35 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 374).
Despite the importance of Roman Segovia, attested even today by the grand aqueduct of that era, it did not have a separate episcopal see from that of Palencia until the 6th century, and even then in an irregular manner and thanks to the primate of Toledo, Montanus, who established it provisionally. Nevertheless, the people of Segovia obtained that the series of their own bishops continued until the time of the Saracen invasion, which brought calamity to the faithful and the bishops, of whom few names are known. After the Christian reconquest, the city and diocese were restored by King Alfonso I.
The Cathedral, consecrated in 1228 and then destroyed in the second decade of the 16th century during the Comuneros Wars, was rebuilt in 1522 by Bishop Federico de Portugal in a late Gothic style, with a Latin cross plan, three naves, and a transept. The architect was Juan Gil de Hontanón. A dome 67 meters high rises above the transept; the bell tower, also topped with domes, reaches a height of 110 meters. The adjoining Gothic cloister (1463–70) is that of the ancient Cathedral and has recently been restored. The chapter hall is adorned with Flemish tapestries; the Diocesan Museum is rich in precious liturgical furnishings, manuscripts, and incunabula.
Near the episcopal palace is the church of St. Stephen, with a Romanesque bell tower from the 13th century, known as the "queen of Spanish towers." Also in Romanesque style is the church of St. John of the Knights, containing the tombs of illustrious citizens from the 16th and 17th centuries. Typical is the Romanesque church of St. Lawrence, restored in 1900; it has three naves, three apses, and a bell tower with singular capitals. The church attached to the convent of the Holy Cross was erected by St. Dominic in 1218. The church of the "True Cross" was built in 1246 on the model of the Holy Sepulchre; it was restored in 1830, and since 1949 frescoes have been rediscovered on its walls; a Last Supper from the 13th century has come to light. The church of St. Millán dates to the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century. Among the monasteries, those of El Parral, founded in 1447 for the Jeronymites by Henry IV, who in 1455 also founded that of St. Anthony the Royal, are noteworthy. In 1586 the convent of the Carmelites of St. John of the Cross was founded, where his tomb and the small sanctuary known as the "Fuerza cisma" (17th century) are located. The Assumption is the titular of the diocese. Worthy of mention are the ancient cloisters and the very rich Archive. – See pl. XVI.
Giuseppe M. Pou y Martí