TRUJILLO, ARCHDIOCESE of. - Archdiocese and capital city of the department of La Libertad and of the province of the same name in Peru.
It has an area of 38,393 sq. km. and a population of 610,009 inhabitants, of whom 597,800 are Catholics; it has 55 parishes served by 53 diocesan and 35 regular priests; it has 11 male and 12 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 433).
The diocese was created by Pope Gregorio XIII on 13 Apr. 1577, as a suffragan of Lima, and comprised the departments of Lambayeque, Libertad, Piura, and the province of Tumbes. This arrangement was confirmed by Paolo V in 1611, and the first bishop was Mons. Alfonso de Guzman. On 23 May 1943 Pope Pio XII, by the apostolic constitution Inter praecipuas, raised it to the rank of archdiocese, assigning to it as suffragans the dioceses of Cajamarca, Chachopoyas, Piura, and the Prelature of Moyobamba, and elevating the cathedral to the rank and dignity of metropolitan church. By a decree of 1824, the building of the Society of Jesus was occupied to establish the University of Trujillo.