The church was founded by the Argentinian priest Msgr. Jose Leon Gallardo with donations from the Argentinian bishops. The first stone was laid on 9 July 1910, the centenary of Argentinian independence. Mrs. Seaz Pena, wife of the President of the Republic of Argentine, was present at the ceremony. Construction took twenty years, and the church was finally inaugurated in 1930.
Argentine was the first Latin American country to have a national church in Rome.
Until 1989, the church was served by Mercedarian fathers; it is now served by Argentinian diocesan clergy.
Adjacent to the church is also the community of the Argentinian diocesan priests who serve the church.
The church is built in a Roman-Byzantine style, with three aisles divided by Ionic columns. The architect was Giuseppe Astorri.
The floor is of polychrome marble laid in geometric patterns. In the centre is the coat-of-arms of Argentine. A memorial slab to Msgr. Gallardo is also set in the floor; it was presented by the Argentinian cardinals and bishops in 1964, when they were convened in Rome for the 2nd Vatican Council.
The high altar is decorated with onyx, and is covered by a baldachino supported by four granite columns in the Corinthian order. The choir is separated from the nave with an altar ring of white marble with intaglia. Bronze gates in the altar ring have the coat-of-arms of Argentine and of the Order of Mercedari.
The pulpit and lectern is decorated in the Cosmatesque style.
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