SIGÜENZA, DIOCESE of. — City and diocese of Spain, a suffragan see of Toledo, situated in the civil provinces of Guadalajara and Soria, with a small part in those of Zaragoza and Segovia. It is the Segontia of the Celtiberians.
The patroness of the diocese is St. Librada. The diocese has an area of 9,814 sq. km., 175,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed among 476 parishes, with 245 diocesan and 33 religious priests, 1 seminary, 3 male and 22 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 401).
The first known bishop is Protogenes, who took part in the famous Third Council of Toledo in 589, at which the complete conversion of Spain was accomplished, in the presence of King Recaredo. The names of the Arian bishops converted at that time are known; it therefore seems that Protogenes and a large part of his diocese had been Catholic long before the Council. As happened in most Spanish dioceses during the Moorish domination, that of S. was also sorely tried at that time, so that the names of very few bishops are known from the eighth to the eleventh century; but after the city was conquered by Catholic arms in 1124, it experienced new life, since King Alfonso VIII granted the Seguntine prelates dominion over the city.
The Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption, was begun in 1124, that is, in the year the Moors were expelled, and precisely on the site where the ancient one had stood. The apse and the crossing belong to the twelfth century, the lower naves to the thirteenth, and the upper nave to the fifteenth. As a whole, it is a fine example of the period of transition from Romanesque to Gothic. It contains the monumental tombs of Cardinal Carrillo de Albornoz (d. 1434), Martin Vasquez, known as El Doncel (d. 1486), and Mgr. Fernando de Arce, Bishop of the Canaries (d. 1521). The Archive is very rich. The Seminary was established in 1651. — Vedi tav. XXXIX.