A building on the site burned in 894 and was quickly rebuilt in Protoromanesque style. Bishop Manfredo began a Romanesque rebuild in 1132, and the bell tower was finished before 1150. Francesco I Gonzaga commissioned a Gothic west facade in 1395 to 1401, carried out by Jacobello and Pierpaolo dalle Masegne. After a fire in 1545, Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga commissioned Giulio Romano for a Renaissance renovation, which Giovan Battista Bertani continued after 1546. The article calls the result an overlay of three styles.
The Baroque facade of 1756 to 1761 is credited to Nicolò Baschiera, an Austrian army engineer, and is Carrara marble. The plan is a Latin cross with five aisles divided by columns.
It is the seat of the Bishop of Mantua, with a pipe organ built in 1915.
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