The front of the barracks faced onto Piazza Grande, now Piazza Vittoria, and extended alongside the baroque church of Sant'Ignazio which, during the war, was hit by several small-caliber grenades, causing damage to its façade.

In front of the old Jesuit college, a wooden votive column had been erected in 1640, on the occasion of the centenary of the Society of Jesus, replaced in 1658 by a stone one. In 1687, a new statue of Saint Ignatius, sculpted by Leonardo Pacassi, was placed atop it. The coat of arms placed at the saint's feet is that of Andrea di Porcia, Knight of the Order of Malta, who had commissioned the sculpture. During the bombings, the statue was decapitated by grenade fragments.