VITORIA, DIOCESE of.—Diocese and capital city in the province of Alava. The diocese has an area of 3,364 sq. km. and a population of 120,156 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed among 406 parishes served by 541 diocesan priests and 72 regular priests; it has three seminaries, two minor and one major, 15 male and 54 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 450). The diocese is suffragan to Burgos.
The diocese was created by Pope Pius IX by a bull of 28 April 1862, following the Concordat between the Holy See and Spain, through the dismemberment of the diocese of Calahorra. Pope Pius XII, by the apostolic constitution Quo commodius of 2 November 1949, detached from it the civil province of Vizcaya in order to establish the diocese of Bilbao; likewise, the civil province of Guipuzcoa in order to establish the diocese of S. Sebastian; and at the same time detached from the diocese of Calahorra that part of the territory known as the Contado de Treviño and united it to the diocese of V. s. Prudenzio de Armenzia (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 535–39).
The old city is situated at approximately 527 m. above sea level, on a hill of Campillo overlooking the plain, and developed around the cathedral; the new city lies to the south. It is the ancient Gazteiz, considered to be of Visigothic origin. In 1181 it was conquered by Sancho the Wise, king of Navarre, who consequently gave it its present name, fortified it, and granted it privileges. The city expanded after the victory of las Navas in 1212 and acquired a new circuit of walls; in 1332 it passed to the Crown of Castile. South of the city, the English, Portuguese, and Spanish defeated the French on 21 June 1813, forcing them to retreat to Pamplona and abandon Spain. The cathedral, Maria Assunta, was erected in the 14th century over the original Romanesque building, of which an octagonal tower remains; outside there is a covered portico with a 14th-century portal decorated with scenes from the life of the Madonna. The interior has three naves and a broad transept; there a chapel contains the Sepultura del Signore, a work by Caravaggio; the capilla mayor contains the bas-relief of the Assumption by Valdivielso; and the sacristy contains a Deposition from the Cross by Van Dyck and a Romanesque statue of the Blessed Virgin. The new cathedral, in the ogival style, begun in 1906 according to a design by Aprisiz and Luque and interrupted in 1914, was resumed in 1946. The Major Seminary was founded in 1880 by Bishop mons. Herrero y Espinosa de los Monteros. The church of S. Pietro dates from the 14th century, as does the church of S. Miguel; the latter contains a retablo by G. Fernandez and I. Velásquez, while outside stands the alabaster statue of la Virgen Blanca, patroness of the city (14th century). The church of S. Vincenzo is in the ogival style (14th century). Worth noting is Francesco da Vitoria (v.). The Casa de Alava, built in 1916, houses the Archives, Library, and Museums. The diocesan museum on the first floor has a collection of triptychs from the Flemish, Italian, and Spanish schools; polychrome statues of Christ and the Madonna from the 14th–15th centuries; the provincial museum contains a series of paintings; the archaeological museum contains prehistoric, Neolithic, and Roman antiquities, as well as numismatic collections. The Episcopal Palace has a rich library, but its collection of paintings is now on deposit at the Prado in Madrid.
In Azpeitia, which until 2 November 1949 belonged to the diocese of V., the servant of God Francesco Garate S. J. (v.) was born on 3 February 1857; the cause of his beatification and canonization was introduced on 26 February 1950 (AAS, 24 [1950], pp. 559–60).—See plate CLI.