It covers an area of 12,000 sq km and has a population of 420,730, of whom 419,900 are Catholics, distributed across 250 parishes served by 242 diocesan priests and 47 regular clergy; it has two seminaries, five male religious communities and 28 female ones, and is a suffragan of Valladolid.
The diocese was established in 905, but due to the Moorish invasion in 999 no bishops were appointed until the see was re-established under Callistus II. For a long time it was a suffragan of Braga, then of Toledo, of Santiago from 1129, and of Valladolid from 1851. Among its bishops are remembered Attiliano in the 10th century, Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo (1467–68), and Diego Deza (1494).
The cathedral, dedicated to the Saviour, dates from the 12th century; it was begun by Alfonso VII in 1151 and consecrated in 1174 by Bishop Stephen. It is Romanesque, with three naves, a transept, a dome and a bell tower rising to 50 m in height. Between 1406 and 1506 it was enlarged at the expense of Bishop Diego Meléndez Valdés.
The parish church of St Peter, restored by Bishop Meléndez Valdés and transformed in the 17th century; the church of St Mary Magdalene, a Romanesque structure; St Isidore, blending Romanesque and Gothic styles; St Mary of La Orta; St Cyprian; St Andrew, with an attached monastery dating from the early 12th century; and St Anthony, renovated and containing an image of the Blessed Virgin.
ZAMORA, DIOCESE OF - Interior of the cathedral (12th century) - Zamora.
ZAMORA, DIOCESE OF - City and diocese in the department of Morelia, comprising almost half of the state of Michoacán in Mexico.
It covers an area of 12,000 sq km and has a population of 420,730, of whom 419,900 are Catholics, distributed across 250 parishes served by 242 diocesan priests and 47 regular clergy; it has two seminaries, five male religious communities and 28 female ones, and is a suffragan of Valladolid.
The diocese was established in 905, but due to the Moorish invasion in 999 no bishops were appointed until the see was re-established under Callistus II. For a long time it was a suffragan of Braga, then of Toledo, of Santiago from 1129, and of Valladolid from 1851. Among its bishops are remembered Attiliano in the 10th century, Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo (1467–68), and Diego Deza (1494).
The cathedral, dedicated to the Saviour, dates from the 12th century; it was begun by Alfonso VII in 1151 and consecrated in 1174 by Bishop Stephen. It is Romanesque, with three naves, a transept, a dome and a bell tower rising to 50 m in height. Between 1406 and 1506 it was enlarged at the expense of Bishop Diego Meléndez Valdés.
The parish church of St Peter, restored by Bishop Meléndez Valdés and transformed in the 17th century; the church of St Mary Magdalene, a Romanesque structure; St Isidore, blending Romanesque and Gothic styles; St Mary of La Orta; St Cyprian; St Andrew, with an attached monastery dating from the early 12th century; and St Anthony, renovated and containing an image of the Blessed Virgin.
ZAMORA, DIOCESE OF - Interior of the cathedral (12th century) - Zamora.