ZAMORA, Diocese of. - Diocese and capital city of the province of the same name in Spain.
It has an area of 12,000 sq km with a population of 420,730 inhabitants, of whom 419,900 are Catholics, distributed in 250 parishes, served by 242 diocesan priests and 47 regulars; it has two seminaries, 5 male religious communities and 28 female ones; it is a suffragan of Valladolid.
The diocese was created in 905, but because of the Moorish invasion in 999 there were no more bishops, until the see was erected again under Callixtus II. For a long time it was a suffragan of Braga, then of Toledo, of Santiago in 1129, and in 1851 of Valladolid. Among its bishops are remembered Attilianus in the 10th century, Rodrigo Sanchez de Arevalo (1467-68), Diego Deza (1494).
The Cathedral dedicated to the Savior dates back to the 12th century; it was begun by Alfonso VII in 1151 and was consecrated in 1174 by Bishop Stephen. It is Romanesque with three naves, with a transept, a dome and a bell tower that rises to a height of 50 m. Between 1496 and 1506 it was enlarged at the expense of Bishop Msgr. Diego Meléndez Valdés. The Seminary was founded in 1721. Among the other churches are remembered: the parish church of St. Peter, restored by Bishop Meléndez Valdés and transformed in the 17th century; the church of the Magdalene, a Romanesque construction; St. Isidore, between the Romanesque and Gothic styles; St. Mary de la Orta; St. Cyprian; St. Andrew, with the monastery of the beginning of the 12th century attached to it, and St. Anthony, renovated, which contains an image of the Blessed Virgin.
(phot. Mas) ZAMORA, DIOCESE of - Interior of the Visigothic church of S. Pedro de la Nave - Zamora.
Bibliography6 works
Enrico Josi