TORTOSA, Diocese of. - City and diocese in the civil province of Tarragona in Spain. Over an area of 8,709 sq km it has a population of 450,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed in 209 parishes, served by 232 diocesan priests and 74 regulars; it has a "conciliar diocesan seminary of Jesus," 18 male religious communities and 83 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 427). It is a suffragan of Tarragona. The patroness of the diocese is the Blessed Virgin under the title of the Nativity, feast on 8 September.
The city of T. is situated on the left bank of the Ebro in a fertile and narrow plain surrounded by mountains. It is the ancient Roman city of Dertosa Iulia Augusta; it was besieged and taken by Louis the Pious in 811; retaken by the Arabs and reconquered by Ramon Berenguer IV in 1148. In the 14th century the Libro de las costumbres of T. was of great importance.
The first known bishop is Ursus in 516. During the Arab invasion T. suffered greatly and little is known of its fortunes. In 1068 Paterno was its bishop; after Ramon Berenguer reconquered it, Gaufrius, abbot of St. Rufus in Avignon, became its bishop; from 1473 to 1513 Alfonso of Aragon was bishop; then Adrian Florensz of Utrecht from 1516 to 1522 (cardinal from 1517, later Pope Adrian VI); he was succeeded by Card. Willem van Enckevoirt (1523-34), and from 1623 by Card. Agostino Spinola, transferred in 1627 to Granada.
The Cathedral, begun in 1158, was consecrated by Berenguer, archbishop of Tarragona, in 1178; it was rebuilt between 1347 and 1597 and reconsecrated on 8 June of that year; further additions were made between 1621 and 1725, so it is partly Gothic and partly Baroque. The tower known as the "Almudena" is from the Arab period. The interior has three naves; the high altar of the 14th century and the choir of the 16th century were destroyed during the war of 1936-38. The ambulatory with fluted pillars is from the 15th century; the wooden retable with the Madonna and Child is from the 14th century. To the right of the choir is the "Parroquial" with pillars and a dome of 1800. In the sacristy is an inscription recalling the ancient mosque; the Treasury contained in it has artistic reliquaries, a cover with Christ seated on a throne, manuscripts, tapestries, etc. The Gothic choir attached to the north side is from the 13th century. The church of N. S. del Rosario was rebuilt in 1947. The episcopal palace of the 14th century, remodelled in the 18th century, was damaged in 1938. The convent of St. Louis was founded by Charles V in 1544; it has a Renaissance facade, a two-storey "patio," adorned with 38 busts of the sovereigns of Aragon from 1137 to the beginning of the 17th century. The ancient convent of St. Dominic has a Renaissance facade and is now used as a museum of Iberian, Roman, Arab and medieval antiquities; ceramics from Alcora and Manises, artistic leatherwork from Valencia, paintings, etc. There too are the archives, among which is the municipal charter of 1149. Three km from T., at Roquetas, in the ancient College of the Jesuits, is the cosmic physical Observatory. - See plate XXXIV.
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Enrico Josi