SEGOVIA, Diocese of. - Diocese and city of Spain, suffragan of Valladolid, situated almost entirely in the civil province of the same name, except for a few parishes existing in those of Burgos and Avila.
It has an area of 6,827 sq. km., with a population of 220,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed in 290 parishes, served by 310 diocesan priests and 45 regulars; it has a seminary, 12 male religious communities and 35 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 374).
Despite the importance of Roman S., attested even today by the grandiose aqueduct of that time, it did not have an episcopal see separate from that of Palencia until the 6th century, and even then in a scarcely canonical manner and thanks to the Toledan primate Montano, who erected it provisionally. Nevertheless the Segovians obtained that the series of their own bishops should continue until the time of the Saracen invasion, which brought calamities upon the faithful and upon the bishops, of whom few names are known. After the Christian reconquest, the city and the diocese were restored by King Alfonso I.
The Cathedral, consecrated in 1228 and then destroyed in the second decade of the 16th century because of the wars of the comuneros, was rebuilt in 1522 by Bishop Federico de Portugal in a decadent Gothic style, with a Latin cross plan, three naves and a transept. The architect was Juan Gil de Hontañón. Above the transept rises a dome 67 m. high; the bell tower too is provided with domes and reaches a height of 110 m. The adjoining Gothic cloister (1463-70) is that of the old Cathedral and has been recently 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 of the 13th century, called the queen of Spanish towers. Also in Romanesque style is the church of St. Juan de los Caballeros, containing the tombs of the illustrious citizens of S. of 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 St. Cross was erected by St. Dominic in 1218. The church "de la Vera Cruz" was built in 1246 on the model of the Holy Sepulchre; it was restored in 1830; since 1949 the frescoes on its walls have been being rediscovered; a Last Supper of the 13th century has come to light. The church of St. Millán dates back to the end of the 11th century or the beginning of the next. Among the monasteries, mention is made of those of El Parral, founded in 1447 for the Hieronymites by Henry IV, who in 1455 also founded that of St. Anthony el Real. In 1586 the convent of the Carmelites of St. John of the Cross was founded, where his tomb is, along with the small sanctuary called "la Fuencisa" (17th century). The titular of the diocese is the Assumption. Worthy of mention are the ancient cloisters and the very rich Archive. - See plate XVI.
Bibliography7 works
Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti