Solsona, Diocese of

SOLSONA, Diocese of. - City and diocese of Spain. It extends through the civil provinces of Lerida and Barcelona with an area of 4,000 sq km.; it has 200,000 inhabitants, all Catholic, and consists of 186 parishes and 426 churches; the diocesan clergy is composed of 264 individuals; the regular clergy of 110. The male religious houses are 12, with 370 members; the female ones are 41, with 417 religious. Its bishop is Vincenzo Enrique y Tarancon, consecrated in 1946. The diocese is a suffragan of Tarragona.

The diocese of S. originally formed part of the diocese of Urgel. But the region of S., situated in a very mountainous and difficult area, could not easily be visited and supervised by the bishops of Urgel; and, in order to prevent the infiltrations of the Lutheran heresy, King Philip II obtained from the pontiff Clement VIII the creation of the new diocese, with the episcopal see in the city of S. The ancient and celebrated canonry of S. Maria, founded in the 10th century and recently secularized by the same Pontiff, was chosen as the cathedral of the new Chapter. The date of erection of the diocese is 19 July 1593, and on 4 August the canon of Barcelona Luigi Sanz was preconized as its first bishop.

Twenty-two bishops governed it until 1838, when, upon the death of Bishop Tejada, and with the revolutions of those times, it first remained without a prelate and afterwards, in the Concordat of the year 1851, it was suppressed and united to the diocese of Vich. Among the bishops of S. especially worthy of remembrance are Fr. Giovanni de S. Maria Alonso y Valencia, O.F.M. (1694-99), who merited great distinctions from the popes Innocent XI, Alexander VIII and Innocent XII, and took part in the negotiations for the Peace of Ryswick; Giuseppe di Mezquia y Dias (1746-42), promoter of great pastoral activities, and Raffaello Lasala y Locela, O.S.A. (1773-93), of eminent holiness and charity; in his time the very rich Archive of the ancient canonry was organized. After the diocese was restored in 1891, it had, first, the bishop of Vich as apostolic administrator and its own administrator in 1895; in 1933 it regained the title of bishop. Among the apostolic administrators are remembered Francesco Vidal y Barraquer (1913-19), later cardinal-archbishop of Tarragona, founder of the « Musaeum Archaeologicum Diocesanum », with interesting collections of regional prehistory and others of medieval art.

Besides the Cathedral, whose ogival construction preserves the apses of the 12th century, worthy of mention are the church of S. Vincenzo di Cardona, of the 11th century; the small church with a circular plan of S. Pietro « el Gros », of the 11th century, at Cervera; the abbey of S. Pietro di Ager, whose church is much ruined and dates from the 11th century; the monastery of S. Pietro della Portella, of the 11th century; and S. Maria di Serrateix, of the 11th-12th century.

Pietro Batlle