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The Basilica of San Giorgio fuori le mura, annexed to the Monastery of San Giorgio degli Olivetani, is the oldest Catholic place of worship in the city of Ferrara, dating back to 1135. The history of the basilica is closely linked to the origins of Ferrara. Between the 7th and 8th centuries, due to the continuous barbarian invasions that devastated Voghenza, the seat of the bishop was moved from Voghenza to what was to become Ferrara. The church was completely rebuilt in the 15th century by Biagio Rossetti, remodelled from 1581 on a design by Alberto Schiatti, and then modified in the 17th and 18th centuries with the erection of the new façade by Andrea Ferreri.

San Giorgio Maggiore is a Venetian abbey basilica whose construction was begun in 1566 by the architect Andrea Palladio and completed in 1610 by Simone Sorella. The present bell tower (63 m high) was designed by the architect Benedetto Buratti and dates from 1791. The one built in 1467 collapsed in 1774. An abbey church has existed on this site since the 8th century.

The Basilica of San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini was begun in the 16th century and completed in the 18th century. The architect Jacopo Sansovino, started the construction in 1519, the actual construction of the church was carried out with the participation of Giacomo Della Porta who set up a church with a basilica plan with three naves on arched pillars and five chapels on each side. It was only thanks to Carlo Maderno that Giacomo Della Porta's project was realised, reducing the apse and transepts to three flat walls with large windows and building the slender dome in brick and stucco in 1634. The church was not completed until 1738 by Alessandro Galilei, who died a year before the completion of the façade.

The Basilica of San Michele Maggiore dates back to the 11th and 12th centuries and is one of the most beautiful churches in the Lombard Romanesque style. A previous building having been destroyed by fire in 1004, the construction of the present basilica began towards the end of the 11th century and was certainly completed in 1155, with an interruption due to the great earthquake of 1117. San Michele stands out from the other churches in the city for its intensive use, both for its structure and for its decorations, of fragile ochre-coloured sandstone instead of terracotta. The façade is decorated with a rich repertoire of beautiful sandstone sculptures.

The Basilica of San Miguel, built between 1739 and 1745 by the architect Santiago Bonavía, is one of the most beautiful Spanish Baroque churches in the city. The church of Saints Justo and Pastor was there before, dating from before the 13th century, but damaged by a fire in 1690, it was finally destroyed.

The Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro was built at the beginning of the 8th century, in the middle of the Lombard era and is called St. Peter in the Golden Sky because of its golden ceilings. The church was reconsecrated by Pope Innocent II in 1132 after major renovations in Romanesque style. Having fallen into a state of abandonment and ruin after the Napoleonic period, the basilica was restored and partially rebuilt between 1875 and 1899.

The Basilica of San Pietro was built around 996 as an abbey church. In 1398 the abbey was burnt down by the inhabitants of Perugia, who accused Abbot Francesco Guidalotti of conspiracy. In 1591 a thirty-year reconstruction campaign began, led by Valentino Martell, which gave the complex its present style. The abbey was temporarily abolished by the French in 1799, and definitively abolished in 1890 to make way for an "Institute of Agricultural Education", today the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences of the University of Perugia.

The Basilica of San Sabino is an ancient cathedral, dedicated to San Sabino, bishop of Canosa in the 6th century. Built in the 8th century under the direction of the Lombard Duke Arechis II (758-787), consecrated in 1101 with the participation of Pope Paschal II and often rebuilt, the cathedral houses the tomb of Bohemond I of Antioch, son of Robert Guiscard (Norman adventurer), in an annex on the wall of the south nave. The whole building is influenced by oriental styles. In the 19th century, the first three bays and the neoclassical façade were added.

The Basilica of San Salvatore was founded in 753 as the church of the female monastery of San Salvatore and was completed more than eight centuries later, in 1599. Of the original church, only the structure with three naves marked by columns and capitals is preserved. The church is entirely decorated with some of the richest and best-preserved stuccoes and frescoes of the early Middle Ages. The complex is one of the seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites that bear witness to the culture of the Lombard people.

The Basilica of San Saturnino dates back to the 12th century but a church was already there in the 6th century according to the writings of Saint Fulgenzio di Ruspe (468-533). In 1089 the complex was given to the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of San Vittore di Marsiglia (Vittorini), who established a priory there. The renovated basilica was consecrated in 1119. In 1444 it came into the possession of the Archdiocese of Cagliari: the monastery was abandoned and the church was restored in 1484.