Castellum Ripae

Castellum Ripae (literally "Riverbank Forification") or Hadjar-Ouaghef is a locality and archeological site in Algeria, North Africa.[1][2]

Castellum Ripae is North-East of Hanaïa and 6km from the confluence of the Sık'k'ak and the Isurs Rivers.[3]

History

During the Roman Empire Hadjar-Ouaghef was known as Castellum Ripae. It appears to have been a civitas in of the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis. Castellum Ripae has been identified with a set of ruins near Hadjar-Ouaghef.

Ancient Castellum Ripae was also the seat of a Christian bishopric during late antiquity.[4][5] The only known bishop of this diocese is Cereale, who took part in the synod assembled in Carthage in 484 by the Vandal King Huneric, after which Cereale was exiled.[6]

Although the see ceased to effectively function with the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, today the bishopric (Latin: Dioecesis Castelloripensis) survives as a titular bishopric of the Roman Catholic Church,[7] and the current bishop is Jose Pandarassery, of Kottayam.[8]

At the beginning of French colonialism a fort was established here and it became a de facto entry into the Tafna Valley.[9]

References
  1. xxx.
  2. Michael Greenhalgh, The Military and Colonial Destruction of the Roman Landscape of North Africa, 1830–1900, pp 75 2014.
  3. Revue Africaine Volume 1 Année 1856 (Journal Des Travaux De La Société Historique Algérienne Par Les Membres De La Société) p1090.
  4. Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, (Leipzig, 1931), p. 465
  5. Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, (Brescia, 1816), p. 128.
  6. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1 ), "Sedi titolari", pp. 819-1013
  7. Castello di Ripae, at catholic-hierarchy.org.
  8. Castello di Ripae at gcatholic.org.
  9. Michael Greenhalgh, The Military and Colonial Destruction of the Roman Landscape of North Africa. (BRILL, 8 May 2014) p118.

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