Roman Catholic Diocese of Guastalla

It began as a small chapel, ordered by a Holy Roman Emperor in 865; it was promoted into being a parish; it then became a territorial abbey; and finally, after the Napoleonic occupation of Italy, it was made a diocese at the request of his second wife.

[1][2] Guastalla began as a chapel, built on order of the Emperor Louis II dated 2 November 865, on territory given to his wife Engelberga.

[10] The eleventh Abbot Ordinary of Guastalla, Francesco Maria Scutellari of Parma, was also titular bishop of Joppa (Palestine).

He was succeeded by the chaplain of Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, Giovanni Neuschel, titular bishop of Alessandria Troas (Ilio), from 1826 to 1828.

[12] By a decree of Pope Pius VII in an apostolic letter of 1 December 1821, as part of a general reorganization of the hierarchy of Italy following the expulsion of the French, the territory of the Abbey of Guastalla became subject to the Diocese of Parma.

[13] In his papal bull De commisso of 13 September 1828, Pope Leo XII, at the request of Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, created the bishopric of Guastalla.