Built between 1481 and 1489 by Pietro Lombardo to house a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary. The plans for the church were expanded in 1484 to include the construction of a new convent for nuns of St. Clare to the east. The convent was connected to the gallery of the church by an enclosed walkway that was later destroyed.
Pietro Lombardo completed the construction in 1489, and on December 31 of that same year, twelve nuns from the Franciscan nunnery of Santa Chiara (Saint Clare) in Murano took up residence in the convent and attended the consecration of the new church. The small yet sumptuous architectural marvel - financed by public donations from grateful supplicants stands as a lavish symbol of Venetian self-reliance and pride.
The Miracoli has come to serve as a model of the early-Renaissance style in Venice. The church follows a simple plan: a single-aisled nave covered by a barrel vault with a projecting chancel covered by a dome. Exterior and interior walls are sheathed with the finest marbles and porphyry revetments (facings), which are decorated in part with sumptuous carving "all'antica" (in a classical style).
The interior is enclosed by a wide barrel vault, with a single nave. The naive is dominated by an ornamental marble stair rising between two pulpets, with statues by Tullio Lombardo, Alessandro Vittoria and Nicolò di Pietro. The vaulted ceiling is divided in fifty coffers decorated with paintings of the prophets's faces, a work by Girolamo Pennacchi's brother: Vincenzo dalle Destre and Lattanzio da Rimini.
