The Collegiata church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in Pieve di Cento, was built between 1702 and 1710. Until the end of May 2012, when an eartquake shaked the area, it contained paintings by the elite of Bolognese painting, from the famous altarpiece of the "Assunta" by Guido Reni to an "Annunciation" by the Guercino , as well as works by Scarsellino, Passerotti and Lavinia Fontana. These masterpieces are back in the Collegiata since november 2018.

The church kept also a notable wooden crucifix from the 13th century, worshipped as miraculous. A collegiate church, in Christianity, is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a College of canons; a non-monastic, or secular community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body.

The bell tower was rebuilt in late-Romanesque style in 1487.