The canonization of Ignatius in 1622 prompted the new church. Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi chose the plans of Orazio Grassi, a Jesuit mathematician, from several submitted, including ones by Carlo Maderno. The foundation stone was laid on August 2, 1626. It opened for worship in 1650, though the text says it was finished only at the end of the century, and it was consecrated in 1722.
The church is Baroque, on a Latin cross plan with many side chapels, modeled on the Gesù. The infobox gives it as 300 feet (90 m) long and 160 feet (50 m) wide.
Andrea Pozzo's nave ceiling of about 1685 makes the barrel vault look like an open cupola. Funds ran short for a dome, so Pozzo painted one on canvas over the crossing, and Francesco Manno reproduced it in 1823 after a fire. Marble disks mark the viewing points.
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