The construction of this church was entrusted by the Claretian Missionaries to the architect Armando Brasini after the transfer of land from the Holy See towards this purpose was accepted by their General Chapter in 1922.

On October 21, 1934, the crypt was open for worship and the thanksgiving liturgy for the beatification of Saint Anthony Mary Claret was celebrated.

In 1953 the Cardinal Clemente Micara celebrated in this church the Consecration of Rome to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The church is set on a base surrounded by stairs and begins its ascent with a majestic Doric order, whose columns have a diameter of 1.50 m. which reach a height of nearly 12 m. On the main pediment it opens to a pronao surmounted by a double gable of austere form; the rhythm of this architectural order is broken only by a coat of arms of the Congregation of the Claretian Missionaries and a dedicatee as used to be found on the triumphal arches which reads in Latin: TO GOD AND IN HONOR OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, QUEEN OF THE PEACE, 1952.

A large portico, where the three monumental doors are located gives access to the church, and on top one finds the coat of arms of the present Pope and that of the Congregation of the Claretian Missionaries.

On the central door is found the motto: AVE COR MARIAE ESTO SALUS MUNDI (Hail Heart of Mary, be the salvation of the world).

In the angles of the chapel there are the models of 4 Evangelists done by Brasini, originally intended to be sculpted in stone and put in the pinnacles of the facade of the Basilica.

At the entrance of the chapel are found two busts - to the right by Brasini, in marble, of Silvio Canevari (+1932), and on the left, that of Pious XII, in plaster, by L.M.

Large mosaic of the Heart of Mary, patroness of the Basilica, work of the Vatican School, reproduction of the painting of the Jesuit Sebastiano Gallés (1870), surrounded by angels in bronze of Domenico Ponzi and by relics of saints.

To the left is the tomb of the Cardinal Arcadio M Larraona, a Claretian Missionary, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, who died in 1973.

To the right corner of the entrance is the opening to the Presepe Monumentale (Monumental Crib), work of Fulgencio Martínez, situated in the older inferior crypt (11).

Media related to Basilica del Sacro Cuore Immacolato di Maria at Wikimedia Commons