Diocese of Pinerolo

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The bishopric of Pinerolo is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in the province of Turin of Piedmont, Northern Italy. It is a suffragan of the archbishopric of Turin.

[edit] Ecclesiastical history

Pinerolo's episcopal see was originally an abbey nullius. It was founded in 1064 by Adelaide, Princess of Susa, in Abbadia Alpina. In the tenth century it belonged to the Marca di Torino (March of Turin) and was governed by the abbots of Pinerolo, even after the city had established itself as a commune (1200). From 1235, however, Amadeus IV of Savoy exercised over the town a kind of protectorate which, in 1243, became absolute, and was exercised thereafter either by the house of Savoy

Pinerolo was made a diocese in 1748, at the request of Charles Emmanuel, its first prelate being G. B. d'Orlié.

In 1805, conformably with the wish of Napoleon I Bonaparte, the diocese was united with the bishopric of Saluzzo, but in 1817 it was re-established as an independent episcopal see.

Those of its churches deserving mention are the cathedral (which dates from the ninth century, and has a beautiful campanile) and San Maurizio, a beautiful Gothic church, from the belfry of which there is a superb view of the Alps and of the sub-Alpine plain.

In the early 20th century it had 58 parishes, 100,200 inhabitants, 3 religious houses of women and 3 educational institutes for girls.

[edit] Sources and references

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. [1]