VITTORIO VENETO, DIOCESE OF. - City and diocese in the province of Treviso on the southern slope of the Belluno Prealps; the city is watered by the Meschio. It has an area of 1,420 sq km with a population of 286,520 inhabitants, almost all Catholics, distributed in 167 parishes served by 367 diocesan priests and 87 regulars; it has a seminary, 11 male religious communities and 112 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 450).
From its establishment (second half of the 7th century) until 1939 it was called the diocese of Ceneda (Cenetensis), from the southern district, the residence of the bishops. In 1866, together with the northern district of Serravalle, the city took the name of Vittorio Emanuele II; in 1918 it became an auspicious name of victory for Italy, which concluded the world war at V. V. By decree of the S. Congreg. Concistoriale, dated 13 May 1939, it is called the diocese of V. V. (Victoriensis Venetorum).
I. HISTORY
The diocese, a suffragan of Aquileia, had its first constitution in the second half of the 4th century at Opitergium (v. ODERZO). After the destruction of Oderzo by Grimoald (665), the new see was re-established at Ceneda, as a Lombard foundation. A placitum of Liutprand (6 June 743), reported in a document of the 11th-12th century, which some historians declare authentic and others false, attributes it to this Catholic King, who left behind a wide traditional renown; P. Paschini instead holds it credible that it should be attributed to the period in which the schism of the "Three Chapters" (v.) was still raging in the Mediterranean Venice: "when, relations with Rome being interrupted, it had to be considered legitimate to provide for ecclesiastical needs on one's own authority; consequently in the second half of the 7th century. If this had happened under Liutprand, there would be more certain record of it. Meanwhile, along the Adriatic coast, exempt from Lombard rule, a prelate held the spiritual government who, with good right, could continue, at least until toward the end of the 7th century, to proclaim himself the continuator of the Opitergine episcopate."
Already a Roman nucleus and an important road junction toward the Alps, in the Middle Ages Ceneda became the seat of a Lombard Duchy and then a Carolingian county, at the head of which Otto I (year 962) placed the bishops themselves; in the age of the Communes it linked itself with Treviso (1147). Powerful families dominated the territory, such as the Caminesi at Serravalle (1175-1335) and the Collalto (1110-1806; castles of Collalto and of S. Salvatore di Susegana). In 1388 Ceneda passed under the dominion of Venice; the bishops of Ceneda, however, in their county, did not wish to recognize its absolute dominion, and a dispute was kindled between them, supported by the Roman Curia, and Venice (one recalls the consultations of fra' Paolo Sarpi, 1613-15), and which dragged on until 1768 when the county was suppressed.
The diocese of Ceneda embraced the territory belonging to Oderzo, except for certain pievi, which remained with the dioceses of Aquileia, Treviso and Padua and which in 1818, by brief of Pius VII De salute dominici gregis, were permanently annexed to Ceneda.
Now the diocese of V. V. is contained between the Piave and the Livenza, between the Bellunese and Carnic Prealps; it borders on the dioceses of Concordia, Belluno-Feltre, Padua, Treviso and Venice.
Among the bishops particularly to be remembered are Dolcissimo, who received from Charlemagne (year 793) the diploma of immunity for the diocese; Sicardo, to whom Otto I (year 962) granted temporal dominion over the county of Ceneda, while Arpone in 1307 acquired it over that of Tarzo; Matteo di Siena, under whose government (year 1199) the Trevisans devastated Ceneda, burning the Cathedral and carrying off the bones of the principal patron St. Titian, which they later returned through the intervention of Pope Innocent III. Throughout the first half of the 16th century the diocese is governed by bishops coming from the Venetian patrician family of the Grimani; Cardinal Michele Dalla Torre (1547-86), of Udine, took part in the Council of Trent and dedicated his energetic work to the reform of the diocese: to Marcantonio Mocenigo (1586-97) is owed the institution of the Seminary, opened on 15 Feb. 1587; Lorenzo da Ponte (1739-1768) rebuilt the Cathedral and Cardinal Iacopo Monico (1822-27) consecrated it (27 Sept. 1824).
II. MONUMENTS
In the diocese of V. V. there survive, some only with partial structures, the ancient Benedictine abbeys of S. Maria di Follina (Cistercians and Camaldolese from 1150 to 1717, Servites from 1915) with its basilica (1305-35), a much-frequented diocesan sanctuary, and a Romanesque-style cloister (1268), mingled with Gothic alterations; of S. Bona di Vidor, of S. Pietro di Colle and of S. Andrea di Busco; of those of Follina and Colle, St. Charles Borromeo was also commendatory abbot. Many other monasteries and convents, about thirty, disappeared following the Venetian and Napoleonic suppressions. There remain: a monastery of Cistercian Benedictine nuns, 5 convents of religious orders and various houses of religious congregations.
In the sanctuary of Motta di Livenza, erected at the beginning of the 16th century following an apparition of the Virgin, the basilica, the cloister and the altarpiece with decorations and bas-reliefs of the high altar are stupendous Renaissance works by J. Sansovino; frescoes and paintings by Pordenone, Amalteo, Palma il Giovane, the school of G. B. Tiepolo and Nono. The sanctuary of S. Augusta, virgin and martyr (5th century), on the hill of the same name at Serravalle, is a destination of pilgrimages from the diocese and from the Veneto.
The city of V. V., comprising Serravalle and Ceneda and, between them, the new part, extends and develops in a longitudinal form, amid the short enclosure of hills, backed by the Prealps in the picturesque variety of well-wooded parks and flowered fountains and in the succession of sacred and civil architecture Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance that give the city a characteristic appearance and tone.
In the monumental Palazzo della Comunità of Serravalle, a small Museum (1938) preserves relics and works of art of various periods, among them the frescoes by Francesco da Milano and a Madonna and Child, in stucco and papier-mâché by Jacopo Sansovino; the medieval castle of S. Martino is still the residence of the bishop, and nearby the complex of diocesan works develops and flourishes.
The ancient Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption and to St. Titian, datable to the end of the 8th century, destroyed by the Trevisans, was renewed immediately afterwards (end of the 12th century) in Romanesque style; rebuilt in the middle of the 18th century, it took on a neoclassical appearance with a recent façade and the persistence of Romanesque configurative elements (crypt, massive restored bell tower, division into three naves).
III. ART
It preserves valuable works of art by Iacopo da Valenza (Virgin between St. Sebastian and St. Anthony of Padua, 1484; Madonna Enthroned with Saints, 1507); by the school of Titian (Virgin between St. Sebastian and St. Roch, 1540); by Dario Varotari (Baptism of Jesus, second half of the 16th century); the ancient episcopal throne (first half of the 15th century) with Sts. Hermagoras and Fortunatus, evangelizers of Aquileia and the Veneto region; a missal and a breviary, whose miniatures are attributed to Giulio Clovio (1498-1578), a gift of Cardinal Marino Grimani, bishop of Ceneda, the bronze urn that holds the relics of St. Titian. The Coronation of the Virgin (1438), a masterpiece by Iacobello del Fiore, was ceded in the last century to the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice.
Other painting works, predominantly altarpieces, are scattered throughout the diocese; of high artistic value are those by Titian in the parish church of Serravalle; by Cima da Conegliano in the cathedral of Conegliano and in that of S. Fior di Sopra; by Pordenone in the parish churches of Susegana and Moriago, by A. Bellunello, Iacopo Bassano, Amalteo in the cathedral of Oderzo and Motta di Livenza; by A. Previtali and Meschio, by G. B. Canal in Serravalle. To these are to be added 14th-and 15th-century frescoes in the church of St. John the Baptist in Serravalle, in the church of St. Andrew of Bigonzo and of St. Peter of Feletto, and furthermore highly successful modern painting cycles, such as those by Pino Casarini in the cathedral and in the cathedral of Sacile.
Bibliography
Ceneda 1845; L. Marson, Guida di V. e suo distretto, Treviso 1889; id., Romanità e divisi dell'agro cenetone, Rome 1904; A. Maschietto, S. Tiziano, Oderzo 1932; id., S. Momo, ibid. 1933; id., La chiesa cattedr. di V. V., ibid. 1951; P. Paschini, Le origini della Chiesa di Ceneda, in Miscell. Mercati, V (Studi e testi, 126), Vatican City 1946, pp. 145-50.
Paolo Lino Zovatto