Construction of the church and convent were directed by
Giovan Giacomo di Conforto, while
Cosimo Fanzago in 1652 designed the facade with its two stucco statues of Saint Teresa d'Avila and St John of the Cross. In 1835, a ramp needed to be built when the street level was lowered. The interior is a Latin cross plan with a single nave; in the chapel are conserved works by
Baroque artists including
Paolo De Matteis and the Flemish painter
Niccolò De Simone. There is also a tomb sculpted by
Tito Angelini, statues by
Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, busts by
Matteo Bottigliero and
Angelo Viva and some decorations by
Costantino Marassi. The second chapel on left has painting depicting the
History of the Carmelite Order (1616–1620) by
Battistello Caracciolo, and the fourth chapel on the right has an
Assumption of the Virgin with a choir of Angels (1613) by
Belisario Corenzio.
Giacomo del Po painted the large canvases at the sides of the transept crossing; they depict the
Battle of Prague and the
Flight to Egypt and the cornices have figures depicting virtue and angels. The cupola, designed by Di Conforto, collapsed in 1835 likely due to faulty construction; the replacement has little artistic merit. This church has the only sculptural image of a member of the
House of Habsburg in Naples in the form of an image of the Emperor
Charles VII sculpted by
Giacomo Colombo in 1715.
Former main altar After the suppression of the religious orders in 1808, the ornate main altar completed by
Dionisio Lazzari was transported to the Capella Reale of the
Royal Palace of Naples, where it still can be found. The altar started in 1672, has two carved lateral doors (1691), a ciborium (1772), all in polychrome pietre dure and
lapis lazuli and framed in gilded bronze. In this church, the replacement altar (1772–1773) derives from the church of Divino Amore.
The chapel of St Teresa of Ávila The chapel of Saint
Teresa of Ávila was designed in 1640 by
Cosimo Fanzago; it has polychrome marble and decorative stucco. There are two paintings by
Ippolito Borghese and it contains an incongruous modern statue of the saint. ==The convent==