The site is recorded as Santa Maria in Via in 1165. According to the article, on the night of September 26, 1256, a well in Cardinal Pietro Capocci's stables overflowed. A picture of Our Lady was reported floating on the water, and Pope Alexander IV declared it a miracle and ordered a chapel built.
Pope Innocent VIII ordered the current church, built from 1491 to 1513. The Servite Order has served it since a grant from Pope Leo X in 1513. Francesco da Volterra and later Carlo Lombardi carried out renovations, and works were completed under Cardinal Robert Bellarmine in 1604. The article is inconsistent on the facade: the introduction credits Giacomo della Porta, while the history section credits Pietro da Cortona in 1660.
It is a titular church, instituted in 1551, and a national church for the Ecuadorian community.
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