Church of the Gesù site features

Gaulli's Triumph of the Name of Jesus

The ceiling fresco of 1678–1679 by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called Baciccia — the most striking feature of the interior, and painted so that figures appear to spill out of the frame onto the vault. Gaulli also frescoed the cupola with its lantern and pendentives, the central vault, the window recesses and the transept ceilings, and the apse's Glory of the Mystical Lamb. Stand directly underneath; the illusion is built for one spot.

The St Ignatius Chapel

Left transept, designed by Andrea Pozzo between 1696 and 1700, and the church's masterpiece. The altar shows the Trinity above a globe. The lapis lazuli representing the Earth was thought to be the largest piece in the world — it is actually mortar decorated with lapis lazuli. Four lapis-veneered columns enclose the colossal statue of the saint by Pierre Legros, itself a copy: Pius VI melted the original silver one down in 1797 to pay Napoleon.

The arm of Saint Francis Xavier

A silver reliquary in the right transept holds part of the saint's right arm — the arm with which, by tradition, he baptised 300,000 people. The rest of him is in Goa. Above, Carlo Maratta's death of Francis Xavier on Shangchuan Island, with scenes from his life by Giovanni Andrea Carlone.

Batoni's Sacred Heart

The famous Sacred Heart of Jesus by Pompeo Batoni, in the last chapel to the right of the high altar.

Bernini's Bellarmine

A bust of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine by Bernini, in the presbytery. Bernini prayed in this church daily.

The Borgia chapel

First chapel on the left, for San Francesco Borgia — the Duke of Gandía who renounced his title to join the order and became its third Superior General. Altarpiece by Pozzo; ceiling frescoes by Nicolò Circignani, Il Pomarancio; wall paintings by Pier Francesco Mola.