TERUEL, DIOCESE of. — Diocese and capital city of the province of the same name in Spain. It has an area of 6,200 sq. km. and a population of 85,650 inhabitants, almost all Catholics, distributed among 117 parishes served by 146 diocesan priests and 20 religious priests; it has one seminary, 6 male and 15 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 422).
The city of T. stands at an altitude of 911 m. on the left bank of the Turia, at the confluence with the Alfombra. Founded by the Iberians and called Turba, it was devastated by the Romans after Hannibal had destroyed Sagunto. The Arabs rebuilt the city and are said to have given it the name T. after a statue of a bull discovered among the ruins. Although reconquered by Alfonso II in 1171, the last mosque was not demolished until 1502. Pietro IV visited the city in 1348 and bestowed on it the title of exenta (exempt). Gregory XIII granted the requests of Filippo II, and on 31 July 1577 the diocese of T. was created; J. Pérez de Artieda was appointed its first bishop, but the first to reside there was A. Santos, transferred there from Saragozza in 1579. T. was occupied by the French in 1808 and ravaged by the civil war in 1936, during which its monuments were severely damaged.
The Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption, was erected in the 16th century but disfigured by restorations in 1685. The interior has three naves, with a high altar in repoussé silver (1750) and a retable with the Assumption by Gabriele Joli (1535). The wooden ceiling in Moorish style features painted decorations and Gothic corbels; it was executed in 1335 by Domingo Peñaflor. In the 15th century the two minor naves were added; the dome with polychrome decoration was erected in 1538. The sacristy Treasury preserves a silver monstrance approximately 3 m. high, sculpted in Cordova by B. García de los Reyes (1742). Other noteworthy churches are: that of the Salvador, dating from 1186 and transformed in the Churrigueresque style, in which an image of Christ in wood from the 16th century is venerated, and de los tres manos V. S. Pedro in Gothic style of the 13th century, with a square tower and an adjoining cloister from the 14th century, restored inside in 1741; that of S. Andrea, with the tomb of Gil Sanchez Muñoz, bishop of Maiorca; that of S. Teresa, with an 18th-century stucco dome; that of S. Martino, with a 12th-century tower restored in 1549; that of S. Michele, from the 17th century, with polychrome wooden sculptures; and that of S. Francesco, erected at the end of the 15th century, with a single nave in Gothic style and a polygonal apse.
The see of T. is suffragan to Saragozza; since 1851 it has administered the diocese of Albarracin, founded in the 12th century and situated at an altitude of 1,182 m. Albarracin was the capital of an Arab kingdom and later of an independent state annexed to Aragon. In the ancient cathedral, dating from the 14th century, six noteworthy Brussels tapestries from the 16th century are preserved. — Vedi tav. CXLIV.