HISTORY
San Giovanni in Compito was originally located in the Roman city of Compito, not far from the modern-day Savignano sul Rubicone. The first record of the church was in a 633 papyrus from Ravenna, which documented the presence of a religious building in a rural environment. It is probable that the church already existed as early as 600, at a time when the city of Compito, situated at a crossroads on the Via Emilia, was destroyed by the Lombards. The next historical traces are not until the 10th century, when it reappears in the Bavarian code, in which its existence is attested under the title of “pieve” (baptismal parish). With the 1359 urban restructuring of the town of Savignano, the parish started to decline in importance, ever more relegated to the role of rural and peripheral church. This decadence lasted until the 19th century works of modernization. It was through the effort of Don Giorgio Franchini that the church was revitalized, and its history recorded in the opening of an archaeological museum in 1930. The present church preserves numerous traces of walls from the 7th century, mostly in the southern wall, but is otherwise entirely 11th-century Romanesque. The façade is completely Romanesque, and is well preserved, particularly following the mid-20th-century restorations, which repaired the damage from World War II. The original semicircular apse was demolished and replaced with a rectangular wall in 1827, its foundations were discovered during the repaving of the church during the 20th-century restorations.

ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The gabled façade has a single lancet window, as well as a double-lancet above the portal, revealed during the course of restorations. The surface of the façade includes alternating brick and ashlar blocks, as well as pieces of marble, often spolia.