Cuenca

(Conca)

Diocese in Spain, suffragan of Toledo. The episcopal city (10,756) is also the capital of the civil province of the same name, and the diocese includes, in addition, a portion of the provinces of Guadalajara and Albacete. Cuenca was made a diocese in 1183 by Lucius III, shortly after its reconquest from the Moors by Alfonso IX (1177). The first bishop was Juan Yanez. Among its famous prelates were (1577) the great jurisconsult Diego de Covarruvias y Leyva , Isidoro de Carvajal y Lancaster (1760), and (1858) Cardinal Miguel Paya, Archbishop of Santiago, one of the most distinguished prelates of the Vatican Council. The cathedral of Cuenca is a magnificent Gothic edifice begun at the end of the twelfth and finished in the thirteenth century. One of its chapels bears the name and was built at the expense of the Albornoz family to which belonged the great cardinal Gil de Albornoz. The church of Santa Maria de Gracia, once a synagogue, is remarkable for its fine sculptures