More likely founded around 1084, under the Doge Vitale Falier, and dedicated to his patron saint, this church was reconstructed for the first time during the XII century with it's current pyramidal spire bell-tower and, in the XV century with it's Gothic forms.

Most important were the interventions done around the end of the XVII century: the heirs of Francesco Morosini, known as Peloponnesiaco, decided to construct a funeral monument inside the church for the valorous Doge that conquired Morea but, due to family disagreements, the project on the mausoleum was never accomplished.

The architect Antonio Gaspari, student of Baldassarre Longhena, prepared a project that consisted in remaking the building for Morosini, and started the reconstruction adapting the church in an only cultural purpose. Between 1696 and 1700 the internal reconstruction was completed.

The new building was characterized by a single nave and side alters, but lake of a façade that was added later on in Palladian models thanks to the finances of the Contarini family, and the architect Andrea Tirali: in fact, the façade presents an order of Corinthian columns rested upon elevated platforms that support a triangular tympanum and are surrounded by statues.

Once inside the church, you are immediately struck by the principal alterpiece painted by Vittore Carpaccio: a painting that represents "Saint Vitale on horse and four Saints Adoring Virgin Mary and Child" (1514). Other paintings present in the church are works by artists from the '700's operative in different locations around the lagoon such as Piazzetta, Pellegrini, and Giulia Lama, a painter with not many renowned works. Opposite to the façade, you will find Bazzini's organ,  built in 1833.

Laudable is also the sacristy where the arrangement of various paintings from authors from the '700's are situated.
Tradition narrates that in the Church of San Vidal was placed the sepulchre of the famous Venetian musician Baldassarre Galuppi (died on January 17, 1785), but no memorial gravestone is to be found.