VILLA REALE, DIOCESE of. — City and diocese in the province of Trás-os Montes, Portugal.
It has an area of 4,273.20 sq. km. and a population of 319,883 inhabitants, of whom 319,000 are Catholics, distributed among 257 parishes served by 194 diocesan and 17 religious priests; it has one seminary, 4 male and 11 female communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 448).
The diocese of V. R. was established by Pius XI by the bull Apostolica praedecetorum nostrorum of 20 April 1922, with territory detached from the dioceses of Braga, Lamego, and Braganza, in order to confine the diocese to the civil district of V. R.
BIBL.: AAS, 14 (1922), pp. 369–72; M. de Oliveira, Hist. ecl. de Portugal, 2ª ed., Lisbon 1948, p. 360. Carmo da Silva