TROIA, Diocese of. - City and diocese in the province of Foggia. It has a population of 31,004 inhabitants, almost all Catholics, distributed in 10 parishes served by 41 diocesan priests and 9 regulars; it has a seminary, 2 male religious communities and 6 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 433). It is immediately subject to the Holy See.
The city of T. originated from a group of refugees from ancient Ecana who escaped the destruction of 662 (Constans II, emperor of the East). The Byzantines enlarged
(from G. Cromart, L'architecture romane, I, Paris 1988, pl. 1) TROPHIMUS, protobishop of ARLES, saint - Facade of the church of St. T. (12th century) - Arles.
and fortified the settlement in 1019 to make it a bulwark on the border of Apulia against the aggressive Lombard Duchy of Benevento. The emperor St. Henry II (v.) in his anti-Byzantine enterprise, after a few months of siege, accepted its surrender (1022) and among the terms of the capitulation placed that of the city's passage from the Greek rite to the Latin, so as to remove it from the influence of the East. At the same time the Pope raised it to a diocese immediately subject (1031; bulls of confirmation of Paschal II in 1100 and of Adrian IV in 1156). The inefficiency of Byzantine rule meant that the political direction of the city was in fact in the hands of the bishop, assisted by the «noviliores homines», in that characteristic form of organization very widespread in Apulia in the early Middle Ages (F. Carabellese [v. bibl.]) which was the only vital organization of those populations during the chaotic Byzantine period and that of the Norman penetration. T., under the energetic conduct of its bishops, opposed with tenacity the ferocity of these new conquerors (the bishop Angelo died on 4 May 1041 fighting them on the Ofanto) until these made peace with the Pope, from whom Robert Guiscard obtained in 1054 the investiture of the Duchy of Apulia. Then T. accepted his lordship and became a Norman center in northern Apulia, setting out toward a period of great prosperity and splendor. In 1093 Urban II held a council there, and in the same year the construction of the new Cathedral was begun. In 1105, with an enterprise that seems to have imitated that of Bari with the abduction of the relics of St. Nicholas, the relics of Sts. Eleutherius, Pontian and Anastasius were translated from Tivoli to T. Other councils were held in T. by Paschal II (in 1114 and in 1116) and by Callistus II (in 1120): in this last the Norman barons swore the Truce of God (document in the Capitular Archive, bundle 4, lett. A).
When the line of Robert Guiscard died out in 1127, T. opposed the ambitions of Roger of Sicily on the mainland, reaffirming its own liberty under the conduct of the bishop William II (inscription of the lesser bronze door of the Cathedral), engaging in an epic struggle that ended only in 1139. Once pacified with the new Kingdom of Sicily, the bishopric of T. further increased its political importance, to the point of seeing its bishop Gualtiero II first as a listened-to counselor of King William II and then as grand chancellor of Henry VI and of Frederick II during the period of his minority. During his episcopate Clement III granted (1189) to the see of T. the privilege of the pallium. At the moment of the uprising of the Apulian cities against Frederick II, T., already wounded in its pride by the exclusion of its bishops from the Court of the Swabian, attempted to restore its ancient liberty also against him: but Frederick stormed it (1229) and razed it to the ground. The city recovered only after the definitive collapse of the Swabians (1266-68), without however regaining its ancient importance. Personal property of Joanna I of Anjou, then a comital fief of Peter of Ivrea and of Muzio Attendolo Sforza, it received from Charles V the title and privileges of a city and financial concessions that conferred on it during the Spanish domination a notable splendor. The diocese declined toward the middle of the 1600s because of famines and plagues; it rose again at the close of that century through the work of distinguished bishops. In 1854 Pius IX, in view of the growing importance of the city of Foggia, detached it from the diocese of T. and erected it as a diocese sui iuris. Since 1925 the two dioceses, preserving their own distinct jurisdiction, have been united ad personam.
Very probably the cathedral of T. incorporated into its structure a pre-existing «ecclesia S. Mariae» (ca. 1080) identifiable in the present apse arm (except for the window of the lions), an imposing example of a singular, austere and powerful art. Clear and harmonious in the rhythm of blind arches that mark out its first level (1093 and 1105-20 ca.), it bursts forth with a superbly original accent in the upper part of the facade, where the usual rose window passes from a simple decorative function to an essential and predominant architectural function. Apulian sculpture has marked in the cathedral of T. every phase of its development, from the archaic capitals of the apse and the timid cornices of the right side
(ca. 1093) to the powerful plastic art of the capitals of the nave (first twenty years of the 12th century) and of the lions and the small figures of the facade and of the rose window, to the refinements of the bas-reliefs of the pulpit (dated 1169), of the panels of the left side and of the marvelous tracery of the chancel screens of the rose window, up to the completeness of the quivering lions of the apse window (last decade of the 12th century). Here the masters of Foggia did their apprenticeship, whose descendants would about a century later, in the person of Bartolomeo da Foggia (bust of Sikelgaita in the cathedral of Ravello), have anticipated the Renaissance. It seems that originally the transept did not project beyond the sides of the naves: it is probable that toward the end of the 1100s, when, in the period of the greatest splendor of the episcopium Troianum, the vaults of the transept and of the choir were created, an arm (the left one) was also built as a prolongation of the transept, which in 1738 was transformed into a Baroque chapel. The right arm dates to 1762, when it was built by the bishop De Simone as a chapel symmetrical to the aforementioned one and dedicated to the Assumption.
Superstructures badly accumulated over the centuries were eliminated in a general restoration by the architect Travaglini (carried out by the bishop T. Passero, in 1856-58): but, according to the criteria of the time, the interior was decorated with stuccoes and paintings that give it a smooth and adorned appearance in contrast with the original rough elegance. A rational restoration was begun with the reinstatement of the visible trussed roofs (1949). Of the two bronze doors (work of Oderisio da Benevento, respectively of 1119 and of 1127) the larger is notable for its imposing character, and the second, because in its most elegant agemine (v.) and in its inscription it recalls the culminating episode of Trojan liberty.
Numerous parchments and some manuscript codices preserve, in the Capitular Archive, important documents of the history of the diocese and of Apulia. Particularly worthy of interest, in the Treasury, are the three Exultet (v. ROTOLO LITURGICO), richly illuminated (beginning and end
11th century, middle of the 12th century); ivory caskets of the same age, chalices (12th, 13th centuries and following), ancient vases, enamels, precious vestments (16th century and following), silver busts and furnishings (Neapolitan school, 17th-18th centuries).
In T. mention should also be made of the church of St. Basil (first half of the 11th century), sober and noble in its simplicity; the church of St. Francis (airy 18th-century architecture); the church of St. John, with a very fine Renaissance altar; the Episcopal Palace (late 18th century, decorations from 1905); the Town Hall (formerly the Marchional Palace, with a fine portal and a small collection of tombstones from ancient Ecana). Noteworthy in the diocese of T. are the remains of the ancient abbey of Calatrava in Orsara di Puglia, and the Norman Towers of Castelluccio Val Maggiore and of Biccari. - See plate LVII.
Bibliography11 works
Mario De Santis