Get your sunglasses out! Entering Rome’s most important Jesuit church, Chiesa del Gesù, is like looking directly at the sun.
This overwhelming, stunning gold and marble interior was designed by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, a pupil of Michelangelo’s. The centerpiece is the ceiling fresco, designed by Giovanni Battista Gauli, who also frescoed the cupola, including lantern and pendentives, central vault, window recesses, and transepts’ ceilings.
Chiesa del Gesù was built in the 16th century and is a much-copied example of Counter-Reformation architecture. The Council of Trent influenced the Baroque exterior and revised interior layout and design that were subsequently copied all over the world by other Jesuit churches. Among many specific design details, there is no entrance so as to deposit the visitor immediately into the body of the church. Also absent are aisles, to allow for the congregation to quickly assemble and focus attention on the high altar.
The opulent tomb of Ignatius Loyola, the Spanish soldier who founded the Jesuits in Rome in 1540, doubles as an altar. On the top is a terrestrial globe representing the Trinity that is the largest solid piece of lapis lazuli in the world.
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