The Basilica of San Giacomo Maggiore is an historic Roman Catholic church in Bologna, region of Emilia Romagna, Italy, serving a monastery of Augustinian friars.

A community of hermits founded by the Blessed John the Good of Modena had established itself near the walls of Bologna, along the Savena river, as early as 1247.

They founded a monastery with its church, dedicated to St. James the Greater (Italian: San Giacomo Maggiore).

As they then needed a larger religious complex within the walls, in 1267 construction was undertaken of the new church in the present location.

The church, built in sober Romanesque style (with some Gothic elements such as the ogival windows), had a single nave with visible trusses and ended with a polygonal apse-chapel and two square chapel.

They returned in 1824, although part of the monastery remained a music school, now the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini.

With the anti-clerical laws again suppressing religious orders legislated by the new Kingdom of Italy, the friars gave up the monastery, keeping only possession of the church.

The oratory includes frescoed panels by the Renaissance painters Francesco Francia, Lorenzo Costa, and Amico Aspertini.