The Discalced Carmelites bought the land on April 20, 1607, and built the church from 1608 to 1620, though the infobox gives 1605 for groundbreaking. The article calls it the only structure entirely designed and completed by Carlo Maderno. The order funded the work until excavations turned up the Borghese Hermaphroditus. Cardinal Scipione Borghese took the sculpture and, in exchange, funded the facade and supplied Giovanni Battista Soria, who built it from 1624 to 1626.
The church is 115 feet (35 m) long and 62 feet (19 m) wide. A single wide nave sits under a low segmental vault, with three connected side chapels. Giovanni Domenico Cerrini frescoed the vault in 1675.
The Cornaro Chapel, designed entirely by Bernini, holds his Ecstasy of St. Teresa, which drew criticism for its sensual depiction of the saint. A fire damaged the interior in 1833.
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