VITTORIO VENETO, DIOCESE OF. – A city and diocese in the province of Treviso on the southern slopes of the Belluno Prealps; the city is watered by the Meschio. It has an area of 1,420 km² with a population of 286,520, almost all Catholic, distributed across 167 parishes served by 367 diocesan priests and 87 regular clergy, a seminary, 12 male religious communities and 112 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 450).
From its foundation (second half of the 7th century) until 1939 it was called the diocese of Ceneda (Cenetensis), after the southern district, residence of the bishops. In 1866, together with the northern district of Serravalle, the city took the name Vittorio Emanuele II; in 1918 it became an augural name of victory for Italy, which at Vittorio Veneto concluded the World War. By decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation, dated 13 May 1939, it was renamed the diocese of Vittorio Veneto (Victorienis Venetorum).
I. HISTORY
The diocese, suffragan of Aquileia, had its first establishment in the second half of the 4th century at Opitergium (see ODERZO). After the destruction of Oderzo by Grimwald (665), the new see was reconstituted at Ceneda as a Lombard foundation. A placitum of Liutprand (6 June 743), recorded in an 11th–12th-century document that some historians declare authentic and others false, attributes it to this Catholic king, who left a wide traditional renown of himself; P. Paschini, however, considers it more reliably attributable to the period when the schism of the “Three Chapters” was still raging in Venetian territory (see): “when relations with Rome were interrupted, it was necessary to consider legitimate the provision for ecclesiastical needs by one’s own authority; consequently in the second half of the 7th century. If this had happened under Liutprand, there would be more certain evidence of II. Meanwhile, along the Adriatic coast, exempt from Lombard rule, a prelate had spiritual governance who, quite rightly, could continue at least until the end of the 7th century to proclaim himself a successor of the episcopate of Opitergium.”Already a Roman nucleus and an important road hub 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 (a. 962) placed the bishops themselves; in the age of the communes it allied 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 S. Salvatore di Susegana). In 1388 Ceneda passed under Venetian rule; the bishops of Ceneda, however, in their county refused to recognize Venice’s absolute dominion, and a dispute flared between them, supported by the Roman Curia, and Venice (recall the consultations of Fra Paolo Sarpi, 1613–15), which lasted until 1768 when the county was suppressed.
The diocese of Ceneda embraced the territory belonging to Oderzo, except for some pievi, which remained with the dioceses of Aquileia, Treviso and Padua and which in 1818, by a brief of Pius VII *De salute dominici gregis*, were permanently aggregated to Ceneda.
Now the diocese of Vittorio Veneto is contained between the Piave and the Livenza, between the Belluno and Carnic Prealps; it borders the dioceses of Concordia, Belluno-Feltre, Padua, Treviso and Venice.
Among the bishops, particular note should be made of Dolcissimo, who received from Charlemagne (a. 793) a diploma of immunity for the diocese; Sicardo, to whom Otto I (a. 962) granted temporal dominion over the county of Ceneda, while Arpone in 1307 acquired that of Tarzo; Matteo di Siena, under whose government (a. 1199) the people of Treviso devastated Ceneda, burning the cathedral and taking away the bones of the principal patron. Tiziano, which they later returned through the intervention of Pope Innocent III. Throughout the first half of the 16th century the diocese was governed by bishops from the Venetian patrician family of Grimani; Cardinal Michele Dalla Torre (1547–86), from Udine, attended the Council of Trent and devoted his energetic work to the reform of the diocese; to Marcantonio Mocenigo (1586–97) is owed the establishment 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 Vittorio Veneto 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 a basilica (1305–35), a much-frequented diocesan shrine and a cloister in Romanesque style (1268), mixed with Gothic variations; of S. Bona di Vidor, of S. Pietro di Colle and of S. Andrea di Busco; of these, Follina and Colle were also held in commendam by St Charles Borromeo. Many other monasteries and convents, about thirty in all, disappeared following the Venetian and Napoleonic suppressions. Remaining are: a monastery of Cistercian Benedictine nuns, 5 convents of religious orders and various houses of religious congregations.In the shrine of Motta di Livenza, erected at the beginning of the 16th century following an apparition of the Virgin, the basilica, cloisters and altarpiece with decorations and bas-reliefs of the high altar are splendid Renaissance works by J. Sansovino; frescoes and paintings by Pordenone, Amalteo, Palma the Younger, the school of G. B. Tiepolo and Nono. The shrine of St Augusta, virgin and martyr (5th century), on the hill of the same name at Serravalle, is a pilgrimage destination from the diocese and from the Veneto.
The city of Vittorio Veneto, comprising Serravalle and Ceneda and, between them, the new part, extends and develops in a longitudinal form, between the short ring of hills, against which the Prealps form a picturesque backdrop of well-wooded parks and flowery fountains and in the succession of sacred and civil Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance architectures that give the city a characteristic aspect and tone.
In the monumental Palazzo della Comunità of Serravalle, a small museum (1938) preserves relics and works of art from various periods, including the frescoes of 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 flourishes.
The ancient cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption and to St Tiziano, dating from the end of the 8th century, destroyed by the people of Treviso, was immediately rebuilt (end of the 12th century) in Romanesque style; rebuilt in the mid-18th century, it assumed a neoclassical appearance with a recent façade and persistence of Romanesque elements (crypt, massive bell tower restored, division into three naves).
III. ART
In it are preserved fine works of art by Jacopo da Valenza (Virgin between St Sebastian and St Anthony of Padua, 1484; Madonna in throne 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 cathedral (first half of the 15th century) with St Hermagoras and St Fortunatus, evangelizers of Aquileia and the Venetian region; a missal and a breviary, whose illuminations are attributed to Giulio Clovio (1498–1578), a gift of Cardinal Marino Grimani, bishop of Ceneda; the bronze urn that houses the relics of St Tiziano. The Coronation of the Virgin (1438), a masterpiece by Iacobello del Fiore, was ceded in the last century to the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.Other paintings, mainly 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 cathedrals of Conegliano and of S. Fior di Sopra; by Pordenone in the parish churches of Susegana and Morigao; by A. Bellunello, Jacopo Bassano, and Amalteo in the cathedrals of Oderzo and Motta di Livenza; by A. Previtali in Meschio; and by G. B. Canal in Serravalle. To these should be added 14th- and 15th-century frescoes in the church of S. Giovanni Battista in Serravalle, in the church of S. Andrea in Bigonzo, and in that of S. Pietro in Feletto, as well as successful modern pictorial cycles, such as those by Pino Casarini in the cathedral and in the duomo of Sacile.