VENASQUE. - An ancient diocese in Provence, France, from which the Comtat Venaissin took its name in the Middle Ages; today it is a village in the district of Carpentras. The ancient bishops of V. in the Frankish period resided more often at V. than at Carpentras, although bearing the title of «episcopi Carpentoratensium o Vindascensium».
Among the bishops of V. are known: Costanziano, represented at the Council of Riez in 439, present in 441 at that of Orange and at Vaison in 442; Giuliano, present at the Council of Epaona in 517; Clemazio, who signed as bishop of V. at Orléans in 542 and as bishop of Carpentras in 549; Tetradio in 573; Boetris in 584-604; Ambrogio, who attended the Council of Paris in 614; Licerio at Chalon-sur-Saône in 652.
The church of Notre-Dame, dating from the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century, has an octagonal dome and a Romanesque nave with later side chapels; the apse was rebuilt in the fifteenth century, and the bell tower dates from the eighteenth; remains of the Romanesque crypt and the Romanesque portal survive. To the left is the baptistery, a Merovingian building dating from the end of the sixth century, remodelled in the twelfth century. It is square in form, with four apses, at the entrances to which are large Corinthian columns of pink marble with capitals of white marble. The apses are each decorated with five arches resting on six ancient small columns. The baptismal font is octagonal.