It is located on the hillside leading up to the Capodimonte palace and art museum and is visible from many quarters of the city.

The church has its roots in two miracles observed by local girl Maria di Gesù Landi (21 January 1861 – 26 March 1931).

Known for her devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel (Madonna del Buon Consiglio), she created a painting of the saint in 1884, which apparently stopped an outbreak of cholera in the city in that year.

22 years later, the same painting appeared to clear the ash clouds from the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The 1980 Irpinia earthquake toppled the head of the statue of the Madonna from the top of the church to the ground, where it crashed and lay inexplicably undamaged.