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It was founded in 1506 when the brotherhood of the Virgin of Montserrat in Catalonia built a hospice for Spanish pilgrims. The church of Santa Maria in Monserrato was built according to a design by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in 1518; it then became the church of the Aragonese and Catalans so that today it is the National Church of the Spanish. In 1821 it was renovated by Giuseppe Camporese and underwent a final restoration in 1929. The vast façade has two orders: the lower one, with Corinthian pilaster strips, is by Francesco da Volterra and is very animated, with an 18th-century portal between columns adorned with a marble group depicting 'The Madonna and Child sawing the rock' (an allusion to the mountain where the Catalan sanctuary of Monserrato was built) and niches in the side bays; the upper one is much more modest. The interior has a nave divided by tall pilasters of composite order with side chapels and a vast apse. In the church one can admire stupendous works by Sansovino (San Giacomo Maggiore) and Annibale Carracci (S.Diego d'Alcantara); in the portico of the Spanish College there is a portrait bust of Pedro Foix Montoya by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.