Bir Mcherga ( Arabic : بئر مشارڨة ) is a town and commune in the

Zaghouan Governorate Zaghouan Governorate ( ar, ولاية زغوان ' ) is one of the twenty-four governorates (provinces) of Tunisia and is in north-eastern Tunisia. It covers an area of and its population was 176,945 at the 2014 census. The capital is the town o ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

in the northwest of Tunisia, the site of former

Roman North Africa Africa Proconsularis was a Roman province on the northern African coast that was established in 146 BC following the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeria, ...

n city and bishopric Giufi, which only remains as Latin Catholic

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...

. It is located fifty kilometers southwest of

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

at 36° 31 'north, 9° 58 'east, in the

. As of 2004 it had a population of 7,203.

Modern town

Bir Mchergais is a municipality of 7203 inhabitants and the chief town of a 'delegation' of 21 508 inhabitants comprising several sectors including that of Djebel Oust. The city participates in the loosening of the industrial activities of the capital, notably because of its situation on the RN3 . With Djebel Oust, it hosts three large industrial zones on more than 300

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

s. Its labor force employs more than 35 % in industry (21% nationally). Bir Mcherga is located a few kilometers from the dam of Bir Mcherga, one of two dams on the Wadi Miliane, located 35

kilometer The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ex ...

s from its mouth in the

Gulf of Tunis The Gulf of Tunis () is a large Mediterranean bay in north-eastern Tunisia, extending for from Cape Farina in the west to Cape Bon in the east. Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia, lies at the south-western edge of the Gulf, as have a series of ...

Benefiting from a watershed of 1,442 km 2, its

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

lake

irrigate Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

an area of 1,600

s while avoiding the

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

spectrum for the capital.

History

Giufi was among the many cities of sufficient importance to become a suffragan diocese in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Africa Proconsularis Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, in the papal sway. It historically documented bishops were, ''as phrased in the sources : * Victor, ''episcopus plebis Iufitanae'', who intervened at the Council of Carthage called in 411, among the Catholic bishops, without schismatic counterpart of the disputed and condemned heresy

Donatism Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the Church, in the region of the Church of Carthage, from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and ...

* Fortunius, ''episcopus ecclesiae Ofitanae'', participant at the African council of 646 which pronounced against

monothelitism Monothelitism, or monotheletism (from el, μονοθελητισμός, monothelētismós, doctrine of one will), is a theological doctrine in Christianity, that holds Christ as having only one will. The doctrine is thus contrary to dyothelit ...

as a heresy on instigation of monk

Maximus the Confessor Maximus the Confessor ( el, Μάξιμος ὁ Ὁμολογητής), also spelt Maximos, otherwise known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople ( – 13 August 662), was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar. In his ear ...

Titular see

The diocese was nominally restored in 1933 as Latin

titular bishopric A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

of Giufi (Latin = Curiate Italian) / Giufitan(us) (Latin adjective).

References

Sources and external links

GCatholic - (former and) titular see
; Bibliography - ecclesiastical history * J. Mesnage, ''L'Afrique chrétienne'', Paris 1912, p. 108 {{coord missing, Tunisia Communes of Tunisia Populated places in Zaghouan Governorate Catholic titular sees in Africa

Modern town

History

Titular see

See also

References

Sources and external links