Chiesa di San Giacomo Maggiore

The Basilica of San Giacomo Maggiore is a Roman Catholic Augustinian church at the heart of Bologna's historic centre, founded in 1267 by the Hermits of Saint Augustine and constructed in Istrian limestone in the Romanesque tradition of northern Italy. The exterior's characteristic portico belies an interior dramatically transformed during the late 15th century under Renaissance patronage. The centrepiece is the Bentivoglio Chapel, commissioned by Bologna's most powerful noble dynasty around 1445: painters Lorenzo Costa and Francesco Francia filled it with frescoes and altarpieces that rank among the finest examples of the Emilian Renaissance. Recognised today as an Italian National Monument, the church remains an active place of worship dedicated to Saint James the Greater, patron of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago.