San Giovanni in Monte is one of the most historic and meaningful places in Bologna. Staying in its buildings is a real chance to experience a unique atmosphere, so many different ages having left their mark in this place. The origins of the church and of the monastery are interwined with both the slow reflourishing of the city after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the presence of San Petronio in Bologna. Fifteen centuries ago the natural hill on which San Giovanni in Monte raises lay outside the walls af ancient Bononia and was a holy place visited by pilgrims as an imitation of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Because of its location outside the selenite walls of the city, San Giovanni in Monte favorued the growth of the city and its cultural development. Just as every monastery San Giovanni in Monte was a sort of a city within the city and brought about continuous relations with it, helping a new cultural and social structure to take shape. Since the fifth century San Giovanni in Monte was rebuilt many times. It achieved its present arrangement only towards the middle of the sixteenth century by means of the prestigious work of Antonio Morandi and of the subsequent one, between 1602 and 1652, of Bartolomeo Belli. Works of Lippo Dalmasio, Guercino, Perugino and Raffaello add to the artisitc value of this historic set of buildings. The richness of styles that characterizes San Giovanni in Monte reveals a succession of different cultural ages: the Gotic style, the Renaissance style and more classical one which is typical of Bologna can be admired just one next to the other in its buildings.
The French occupation of Bologna by Napoleon meant the suppression of the religious orders in the city and of course the monastery of San Giovanni in Monte was suppressed too (March 1797). San Giovanni in Monte was then employed as a prison and as the seat of a special criminal court. Later, once the court was closed, it was just a political prison and a cantonal police office. The whole set of its buildings has been restructured on the occasion of the ninth centenary of the University of Bologna (1088-1988). This prestigious seat, which witnessed the birth of the most ancient university in the world, is destined to become a real citatel of learning: it will be able to host advanced research centres and to favour a lager access to culture.