The initial construction of this place of worship seems to date back to 837 on the decision of Pietro and Giovanni Tradonico and was dedicated to St Paul, Polo in Venetian.
The architectural style of the church is unidentifiable as the original plan of the building was with three aisles, but over the centuries various architectural and decorative elements were added during restorations. The church developed from the original Byzantine structure (the two lions at the base of the belltower are proof of this) to the Gothic style of the XV-XVI centuries, seen in the Rose window of the facade and the ogival portal attributed to Bartolomeo Bon, right up to the Neoclassical style of the architect Daniele Rossi. The latter removed the internal columns from the church, filled in the existing windows and created others, along with substituting the semicircular apse with a semi octagonal one and added decorative elements of the style.
The bell tower was built in 1362, with a base of stone and brick and with terracotta walls. The bell tower was topped by an octagonal drum surmounted by a conical spire, believed to be the work of Filippo Dandolo.
Over the centuries this building was decorated by the major artists of the time: Paolo Veronese with the The Marriage of the Virgin positioned in the left apsidal chapel, Jacopo Tintoretto with his Last Supper, Giandomenico Tiepolo with his marvelous Fourteen Stages of the Way of the Cross preserved in the Oratory of the Crucifixion, Giambattista Tiepolo with the The Virgin appears to San Giovanni Nepomuk, Jacopo Palma il Giovane with the Conversion of St Paul and other works on the walls of the presbytery.