Church of Saint John the Baptist (Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista)

Built by master builder Battista di Jacopo Rinaldo (or Rainaldi) starting in July 1496 on a vast plot of land located at the intersection of the ancient Via dei Prioni and the Porte Serrate (now Corso Porta Mare and Via Montebello), San Giovanni Battista is the only city church with a Greek cross plan partially inscribed in a square, a form erroneously attributed by 20th-century scholars to the reconstruction carried out by architect Alberto Schiatti after the devastating earthquakes that struck Ferrara in 1570-74. With the suppression of religious congregations in 1797, the building underwent several closures and changes of ownership, with consequent improper use of the spaces until 1954, when it was definitely closed. The paintings that survived the bombings of 1944 (paintings by Giacomo Bambini, Ippolito Scarsella, Giacomo Parolini) have been held at the Museo Civico di Schifanoia since 1974. After the restoration and consolidation work carried out in the second half of the 1990s by the Municipality (the owners), the church was re-consecrated in September 2012.