Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria

Houses Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1647-52) — arguably the supreme work of European Baroque sculpture and one of the most controversial religious artworks ever made. The Cornaro Chapel stages the scene like a piece of theatre: Saint Teresa of Avila collapses in mystical rapture as a smiling angel prepares to pierce her heart with a golden arrow, illuminated by golden rays and a hidden window above. Members of the Cornaro family watch from sculpted theatre boxes on the side walls. The intensely physical depiction of mystical experience scandalised some viewers from the start — the French art critic Charles de Brosses wrote in 1739, 'If this is divine love, I know all about it.' Otherwise a relatively modest church; visitors come almost entirely for this one chapel.