TARQUINIA (formerly CORNETO TARQUINIA) and CIVITAVECCHIA, DIOCESE OF
Diocese and towns, the first in the province of Viterbo, the second in the province of Rome. The diocese covers an area of over 595 sq km with a population of 67,649, of whom 66,949 are Catholics, distributed across 14 parishes served by 23 diocesan priests and 29 regular clergy, one seminary, 8 male and 16 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 395).
### I. TARQUINIA
Ancient Etruscan city in the province of Viterbo, situated on a hill on the left bank of the Marta river. It fought against Rome between 358-351 BC, but without success. It became a municipium and flourished during the period of the Antonines. Having lost its former splendor, it left its ancient hilltop site to move to another plateau, adopting the name Corneto; it later became a commune and extended its territory toward the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was besieged in vain by Frederick II and defended itself behind its walls and 25 towers; in the 15th century it passed under the lordship of the Vitelleschi, especially under Cardinal Giovanni. The splendor of this family is attested by the sumptuous palace built in 1436, now the seat of the Museum.
The bishops of Tarquinia are recorded in the Roman synods of the years 465, 487, and 499; while in the synod of 504 the bishop of Gravisca appears. In the year 852 Tarquinia was reduced to a pieve and incorporated into the diocese of Tuscania. Eugene IV on 5 December 1435 detached the territory of Corneto from the dioceses of Viterbo and Tuscania, erecting the church of S. Maria e Margherita as its cathedral and uniting it with that of Monte Fiascone. Pope Pius IX united Civitavecchia to Tarquinia on 23 July 1854; it is immediately subject to the Holy See.
In the Roman baths, inscriptions were discovered in 1829 attesting that they were built by the Dasumii Tullii in the 2nd century AD. In Rome, in the cemetery of Callisto, a Dasumia Quiriae was buried in the 3rd century (G. B. De Rossi, *Roma sotterranea*, II, Rome 1870, pp. 185 ff.); a Dasumius Tullius had his monument on the Via Appia “ad mil(iarum) prim(um)”. Among the Christian inscriptions found in Tarquinia, one records a burial from the year 419. Christian terracotta lamps were found in the tombs of Tarquinia; on the façade of the church of S. Giovanni a fragment of a Christian sarcophagus with an orant and pastoral scenes is walled in.
The first stone of the church of S. Maria in Castello was laid in 1221; in 1143 the doors were adorned and the works completed, as documented by the mosaic inscription on the architrave of the door; the works were supervised on behalf of the people of Tarquinia by the prior Panvinio and the priest Giorgio; at that time the city was called Corneto. The marble worker Pietro, son of Ranuccio, is also remembered on the door. In 1168, during the priorate of Orso, the ciborium was erected above the altar, a work of the two brothers Ottone and Guittone. The church was solemnly consecrated in 1208. Giovanni di Guittone is the author of the Gospel ambo (1209). The interior, which reveals Lombard influences, has three naves supported by pillars and arches with an elliptical dome damaged by the earthquake of 1819. The church also had a baptismal font, by a decree of Honorius III of 13 April 1221. Many inscriptions were placed in the floor, one belonging to a girl named Cleopatra, another was placed by a Fl. Maximianus to an Aelia Silvina, but they were removed along with many others by Roman marble workers of the 12th-13th centuries, while G. B. De Rossi considers an inscription of an “Euticius confessor depositus II Kal. septembris in pace” to belong to Tarquinia (Bull. arch. crist., 2ª serie, 5 [1874], tav. 6).
During the time of Albino and Cencio Camerario it was subject to the bishop of Tuscania (Liber censuum, ed. P. Fabre-L. Duchesne, I, Paris 1858, p. 56; II, ibid. 1905, p. 110) and the churches of S. Nicola in Corneto, and S. Giovanni de Insula near Corneto are noted; a rescript of Celestine III of 23 May 1196 mentions the church of S. Fortunata dependent on the abbey of S. Salvatore on Monte Amiata (Jaffé-Wattenbach, no. 17389). The church of S. Giacomo Apostolo, with a single nave, also reveals Lombard influences; that of S. Pancrazio is from the 13th century; S. Anna Nunziata, now an orphanage, is of Cluniac type; from the 13th century are also S. Martino, S. Giovanni Gerosolimitano, and S. Salvatore; S. Francesco was rebuilt after the fire of 1642. Notable in the territory was the abbey of S. Maria de Minione (del Mignone), first mentioned in a privilege of Emperor Louis II who granted it to the monastery of Farfa in 857, but which was contested in the 10th century by the monks of SS. Cosma e Damiano in Mica Aurea in Rome (P. Fedele, *Carte del monastero dei SS. Cosma e Damiano in Mica Aurea*, in Arch. della Soc. rom. st. patria, 21 [1898], pp. 476 ff.). The ruins of the castle of Countess Matilda of Canossa also remain.
Recently the town has resumed the name of Tarquinia. Of great importance is the Etruscan necropolis with tumulus tombs, the oldest of which (7th-6th centuries BC) are chamber tombs.
