[3][4] Commissioned by the Venerabile Arciconfraternita di Sant'Anna de Palafrenieri, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola introduced the oval plan to church design, for the first time in the churches of Sant'Andrea in Via Flaminia and Saint Anne in Vatican, pioneering a plan which was to become influential to Baroque architecture.

[5] On 20 November 1565, Pope Pius IV authorized the Archconfraternity of the Pontifical Grooms to build a church dedicated to Saint Anne close to the Apostolic Palace.

Destined for the altar of the papal Grooms in the Basilica of Saint Peter, it was painted in 1605–1606, Madonna and Child with St. Anne.

[9] In return, Pope Pius XI granted the Archconfraternity the church of Santa Caterina della Rota.

Four doors surmounted by a pediment and framed by travertine columns with Corinthian capitals are distributed between the main altar and the side chapels.

The sacred area of the main altar is a square enclosed by four arches as a clear counterpoint to the oval part of the church.

Influenced by the rise of the Baroque in Rome, the Archconfraternity started redecorating the church with more lavish decorations and plenty of gilt and stucco.

[citation needed] They commissioned in 1746 the sculptor Giovan Battista de' Rossi (Il Rosso) to redecorate the church with angels holding garlands in stucco above the doors.