Collegiate Church of San Giovanni Battista

In the central square, the piazza del Popolo, there is the Collegiate Church of San Giovanni Battista. A collegiate church, in Christianity, is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a College of canons; a non-monastic, or secular community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body. The construction began in 1671, designed by Paolo Emilio Canali, with a 19th-century façade. In the baroque interior, among rich eighteenth-century stuccos recently restored to their former glory, the works of Marcantonio Franceschini, Francesco Albani and Francesco Barbieri known as Il Guercino stand out; the apse altarpiece with The Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist is by the Fabbi brothers.

The Museum of Sacred Art located inside the ancient rectory preserves works by the main exponents of Bolognese painting between the 16th and 19th centuries: among these, those of Francesco Francia, Alessandro Tiarini, the Gandolfi brothers and Donato Creti.