The church was initially a noble palace of the Sanseverino, then confiscated by the Jesuits, in order to build the rich, sumptuous Baroque church of the Gesù Nuovo.The Jesuits destroyed gardens, halls, furnishings; the only parts that saved were the piperno façade and the Renaissance marble portal.
The baroque interior, a Greek cross with a slightly elongated longitudinal arm, has a rich marble decoration made by Fanzago.
On the counter-façade there are frescoes by Francesco Solimena on the Expulsion of Eliodoro from the temple of 1725 and from artists of his school (in the aisles). The barrel vaults were painted by Belisario Corenzio between 1636 and 1638, some of them then repainted by Paolo De Matteis about fifty years later.
Several works by Cosimo Fanzago, such as the Cappellone of San Francesco Saverio, the ramp connecting the enclosed building and the atrium and Cappellone of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola.
Both churches represent the Neapolitan Baroque, that of the Gesù Nuovo with its lapis lazuli Madonna, that of the Gesù Vecchio, in which wherever you turn your eyes, the abundance of gold dazzles you.