San Giovanni Battista, church building in Finale Ligure, Italy

San Giovanni Battista is a baroque collegiate church on Via Giuseppe Garibaldi in the Finalmarina district of Finale Ligure. Its facade carries statues of John the Baptist, Saints Peter and Paul, Hope and Faith by Bartolomeo Bagutti, and is topped by a dome 24 metres high built in 1780 by Giuseppe Barella with Simone Cantoni and Emanuele Andrea Tagliafichi. Inside, three naves are divided by two rows of paired columns imitating early 17th-century Genoese models; it is the largest church of the Savona-Noli diocese.

Construction began in 1619 and lasted fifty-five years; the new collegiate church of Finalmarina was declared finished in 1674 and solemnly consecrated in 1675. The design was long wrongly attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, but later studies assigned it to local craftsmen following his current. Nicola Barella of Finale Marina reworked the baroque facade in 1762, and in April 1930 Pope Pius XI raised the church to minor basilica.

The church is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, whose baptism of Jesus and preaching on the Jordan are depicted in three large frescoes on the inner facade, painted by Paolo Gerolamo Brusco in 1808. In the sacristy, a painting of Saints Erasmus and Nicholas, recently restored, shows a view of Finalmarina and the Finale area in the 17th century in its lower part.

The church is located on a busy square in central Finale Ligure and is easily reached on foot. Visitors should wear appropriate clothing, speak quietly, and respect any services taking place inside.

The sacristy holds a painting of Saints Erasmus and Nicholas whose lower section shows a view of Finalmarina and the surrounding Finale area as it looked in the 17th century, a rare painted record of the town's old layout.