Vitoria, Diocese of

VITORIA, Diocese of.- Diocese and capital city in the province of Alava. The diocese has an area of 3,364 sq km with a population of 120,156 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed in 406 parishes served by 541 diocesan priests and 72 regulars; it has three seminaries, two minor and one major, 15 male religious communities and 54 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 450). The diocese is a suffragan of Burgos.

The diocese was created by Pope Pius IX with a bull of 28 April 1862, following the Concordat between the Holy See and Spain, by dismemberment of the diocese of Calahorra. Pope Pius XII, with the apostolic constitution Quo commodius of 2 November 1949, detached from it the civil province of Vizcaya to constitute the diocese of Bilbao; likewise the civil province of Guipuzcoa to constitute the diocese of St. Sebastian, and at the same time he detached from the diocese of Calahorra that part of the territory called Contado de Treviño and united it to the diocese of V. He also gave that diocese as patron St. Prudentius of Armentia (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 535-39).

The old city is situated at about 527 m above sea level, on a hill of the Campillo dominating the plain, and it grew up around the cathedral; the new city is situated to the south. It is the ancient Gazteiz, believed to be of Visigothic origin. It was conquered in 1181 by Sancho the Wise, king of Navarre, who accordingly gave it its present name, fortified it and granted it privileges. The city expanded after the victory of las Navas in 1212 and received a new circuit of walls; in 1332 it passed to the crown of Castile. To the south of the city the English, the Portuguese and the Spaniards defeated the French on 21 June 1813, forcing them to fall back on Pamplona and to abandon Spain. The cathedral, St. Mary of the Assumption, was erected in the 14th century over the primitive Romanesque one, of which an octagonal tower remains; on the outside there is a covered portico with a portal of the 14th century decorated with scenes from the life of the Virgin. The interior has three naves with a wide transept; there a chapel contains the Entombment of the Lord, a work by Caravaggio; the capilla mayor the bas-relief of the Assumption by Valdivielso; the sacristy a Deposition from the Cross by Van Dyck, a Romanesque statue of the Blessed Virgin. The new cathedral in the Gothic style, begun in 1906 on a design by Aprisiz and Luque, interrupted in 1914, was resumed in 1946. The major seminary was founded in 1880 by the bishop Msgr. Herrero y Espinosa de los Monteros. The church of St. Peter is of the 14th century, the church of St. Michael is of the 14th century; it contains a retable by G. Fernandez and I. Velásquez; outside is the statue in disarray and de la Virgen Blanca, patroness of the city (14th century). The church of St. Vincent is in the Gothic style (14th century). Notable is the monument to Francisco de Vitoria (v.). In the Casa de Alava, built in 1916, are the Archives, the Library and the Museums. The diocesan museum on the first floor has a collection of triptychs of the Flemish, Italian and Spanish schools; polychrome statues of Christ and of the Madonna of the 14th-15th century; the provincial museum contains a series of paintings; the archaeological one prehistoric, Neolithic and Roman antiquities, numismatic collections. The episcopal palace has a rich Library, but the collection of paintings is now on deposit at the Prado in Madrid.

In Azpeitia, until 2 November 1949 belonging to the diocese of V., the servant of God Francesco Garate S. J. (v.) was born on 3 February 1857, whose cause of beatification and canonization was introduced on 26 February 1950 (AAS, 24 [1950], pp. 559-60). - See plate CLI.

Enrico Josi