Luigi Vanvitelli's contribution was decisive in this phase in order to recreate the architectural unity that had been lost during the various phases of construction. His work was similar to that of Bernini's completed at Saint Peter's a century before. He amalgamated the various parts with decorative works. With eight plaster columns identical to the original ones in the transept, he created a composite unit in the passage between the round vestibule and the large transept, and in between this ad the presbytery. With the exclusion of these two areas, he connected the entire perimeter of the Basilica with a single trabeation, identical to the one existing in the transept.

On the square of the former exedra he created a façade with a tympanum portal well adapted to the roman thermal structure which the architect joined to the church with pilasters and horizontal fascias. He paid attention to detail in the architectural decorations (lower arches, consoles) and plaster works (mock coffers in the dome and in the vaults of the passages, garlands and angels in the transept windows). Finally, he oversaw the arrangement of the large paintings from Saint Peter's and the plaster ornamentations which decorate the walls.

Thanks to the foresight of the Carthusian monks who appointed him, Vanvitelli's brilliant work gave great value to the building which had been formed by some great ideas (Michelangelo) and by some questionable ones (Orlandi) through the course of two centuries.

The unification of Italy (1870) drove the Carthusian monks away from their church and the adjacent monastery.

At first they were used by the military, then by the friars of Saint Francis of Paola and finally by the diocesan clergy. In 1896 the wedding of the prince of Naples , the future king Vittorio Emmanuele III, elevated the profile of the church of Saint Mary of the Angels to undertake religious ceremonies of the State, a role it still holds today. Finally, on July 20 1920 , Pope Benedict XV raised the status of the church further to that of Minor Basilica.