Built by Carlo Maderno for the Carmelite friars in the XVII century, its dedication commemorates a victory on the part of the Catholic troops at the White Mountain near Prague (Novembre 8th 1620 - an early episode during the Thirty Years War).

Its celebrity is due to a Bernini's masterpiece: the Cornaro Chapel, granted to the Cardinal Federico Cornaro from Venice. Bernini worked on it between 1644 and 1652, creating even a double source of light to enhance the effect of the central scene. The centre piece is the Extasis of St.Theresa, a sculptured group where St.Theresa experiences God's love impersonated by an Angel piercing her heart with a glowing arrow.

Bernini was inspired by the reading of St.Theresa's Life, where the Saint herself gives the account of her mystic rapture, and achieved here the summit of Baroque art: to give palpable form to immaterial feelings and emotion. Does the Angel's arrow point somewhere in the map of Rome? Who cares! Let yourself get overpowered by this irresistible vision and overawe at Bernini's magic touch!

By the way, here Dan Brown makes a gross mistake: this church is NOT located in Barberini's Square.