The initial architect was Pietro De Marino, but the work including the cupola (1680) was completed by Dionisio Lazzari.

The facades, done in the 19th century by Angelo Viva, depict Our Lady of Carmel (the Madonna del Carmelo).

In one arm of the transept is the Crucifixion with Madonna and St John the Baptist, an 18th-century wood sculpture by Nicola Fumo.

An interior chapel, dedicated to Saint Cecilia, was patronized by the musicians from the Real Cappella Palatina.

The church houses the tomb of the composer Alessandro Scarlatti, who died in 1725, the altar surmounted by a painting of Giuseppe Simonelli which depicts Saint Cecilia.