The basilica of San Biagio is the cathedral church of Cento, in the archdiocese of Bologna. A church dedicated to Saints Blaise and Severinus is recorded as early as the eleventh century, and a stone set into the altar is said to give the date 1045. In 1378 it became a baptismal parish church and was given its font, at the wish of Cardinal Filippo Carafa della Serra. Today's collegiate church was rebuilt between 1732 and 1744 to a design by Alfonso Torreggiani, through the efforts of the archpriest Girolamo Baruffaldi and Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, and was consecrated on 20 October 1764. Since April 1980 it has been a minor basilica. The Emilia earthquake of 2012 caused it serious damage: after the restorations it reopened in 2018.
What to see
The plan is a Latin cross, with a nave and two aisles, transept and apse; over the crossing of the transept and the nave rises an elliptical dome. The style is Baroque, with Renaissance echoes. Walls and dome were decorated in the nineteenth century by Alessandro Guardassoni and Giambattista Baldi.
In the chapels there are two paintings by Guercino: the Chair of St Peter, of 1618, in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, and the St Charles Borromeo in Prayer, of 1613, in the chapel of St Joseph. Other chapels have the Transfiguration by Marcello Provenzali, of 1606, the Nativity of Mary by Bartolomeo Cesi, the Beheading of St John by Carlo Gennari and a wooden crucifix of the second half of the fifteenth century. The wooden choir of the presbytery is by Vincenzo Rossi.
Visiting
Opening and Mass times should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
The bell tower, built in 1760 by Pietro Alberto Cavalieri, has a ring of five bells with a musical peculiarity: in place of the perfect fourth there is the augmented fourth, which to the ear may sound slightly dissonant. The bells are rung only by hand, on feast days: the local ringers use the technique called «a trave», standing on the supporting beams.
