Church of the Gesù

Image: Wikimedia Commons

In the heart of Rome, the Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, known as the Gesù, is the mother church of the Society of Jesus and holds the tomb of its founder, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, in a sumptuous chapel. Desired by Ignatius from 1551, it was built from 1568 by Vignola, with the facade by Giacomo Della Porta, and consecrated in 1584; its single nave, designed in the spirit of the Council of Trent to focus the faithful on the altar, became the model for Jesuit churches throughout the world. Its vault carries the dazzling Baroque fresco of the Triumph of the Name of Jesus by Baciccio.