San Giovanni in Canale, Piacenza, Basilica in Piacenza, Italy.

San Giovanni in Canale is a Gothic brick church with a gabled facade divided by square-based buttresses and a central rose window with slender columns. Inside, a hall-like basilica has three naves of six bays: cylindrical brick columns support double-arched arcades, the side aisles are barrel-vaulted, and the central nave has a coffered ceiling, with the last two bays cross-vaulted.

Dominican friars, who arrived in Piacenza in 1220, built the church between 1228 and 1270 beside the Rio Beverora, a canal that gave the name 'in Canale'. In 1522 it was remodelled, possibly by Alessio Tramello, with a new facade and barrel vaults. From the mid-16th century until 1769 the wing on via Nova housed Piacenza's Inquisition tribunal. Suppressed in 1810, it reopened as a parish church in 1862 and was restored to its Gothic appearance between 1937 and 1958.

The name "in Canale" refers to the Rio Beverora, the canal that once ran beside the church. The Chapel of St Catherine holds the funeral monument of Orazio Scotti, marchese di Montalbo, with a bust sculpted by Alessandro Algardi; the Scotti family also has 14th-century tombs in the interior. The Rosary Chapel, designed by Lotario Tomba with advice from Antonio Canova, contains canvases by Gaspare Landi and Vincenzo Camuccini painted in 1808.

San Giovanni in Canale stands at Via Croce 26 in central Piacenza, not on Via Beverora. The single rectangular entrance is on the facade, reached across a large forecourt; the side doors were removed in the 1937-1958 restorations. Inside, the six-bay hall has two levels of covering, so look up to compare the coffered central ceiling with the barrel-vaulted aisles.

The Dominican complex absorbed the nearby Templar church of Santa Maria del Tempio, which became an oratory attached to San Giovanni. From the second half of the 16th century until 1769, the side on via Nova housed Piacenza's tribunal of the Inquisition.