Pieve di Cento (Bolognese: Pîv ed Zänt; "parish of Cento") is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Bologna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 25 kilometres (16 mi) north of Bologna.

In 1502, the town passed from the control of Bologna to the rule of the Este house in Ferrara, at the extinction of which, in 1598, it became part of the Papal States, where it remained until the Unification of Italy, save for a short occupation by France during the Napoleonic Wars, which saw the suppression of many religious institutions and the expropriation of one-third of the artistic patrimony, which was taken to France.

Two major earthquakes struck the region of Emilia-Romagna in 2012, killing more than twenty people and leaving thousands homeless.

[citation needed] In Pieve di Cento, the shaking collapsed the cupola of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, showering debris into the nave and threatening 17th-century masterpieces by Guercino, Guido Reni and Lavinia Fontana, and exposing them to the elements.

[4] Cardinal Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture and responsible for conserving the cultural patrimony of the Holy See, visited the area to draw attention to the plight of the survivors and tweeted his prayer message accompanied by a striking photo of the serene intact faces of the Madonnina di Pieve di Cento a weakened plaster-cast effigy of the child Jesus in his mother's arms.