Chioggia (Chiozza)

DIOCESE OF CHIOGGIA (CLODIENSIS).

Chioggia is a sea-coast city in the province of Venice. It has an important harbour and extensive fisheries. In antiquity it was known as Fossa Clodia; in the Middle Ages as Clugia. In 452 it offered a safe refuge to the inhabitants of the neighbouring cities of Monselice and Este who fled before Attila. Later, however, it shared the political vicissitudes of that region, falling successively into the power of the Goths, the Lombards, and finally of Pepin, King of Italy, son of Charlemagne. During the tenth and eleventh centuries it became a republic. It was ruined and subjugated by the Genoese during their war with the Venetians, but was freed by the Venetian general Zeno (1378-81), and soon flourished under the rule of Venice. In 1106, Enrico Grancarolo, Bishop of the island of Malamocco, then nearly deserted, transferred his see to Chioggia. Other noteworthy bishops are: the Dominican Marco Medici (1578), a famous theologian at the Council of Trent, and his successor Gabriello Fiamma (1584), one of the greatest orators of his time. Cardinal Pietro Bembo was a canon of the cathedral. This cathedral is remarkable for its magnificent pulpit and baptistery. The Diocese of Chioggia is a suffragan of Venice; it has 93,500 inhabitants, 31 parishes, 2 religious houses for men and 11 for women.