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The original Romanesque basilica church, built in the 9th century, as a shrine for the saint's bones, was destroyed by fire in 967. Byzantine architects assisted in its reconstruction, the main fabric being completed c.1071. In the 12th and following centuries through alterations and elaborate adornments it became a splendid Byzantine monument, reflecting Venice's preeminent position in trade with the East. In the 14th century, the facade received Gothic additions. The present structure is thus a mixture of Byzantine and Gothic and incorporates materials taken from temples and Eastern ruins. Its plan is a Greek cross , and it consists of a group of five square spaces, covered each by its pendentive dome. Each dome is consequently the center of a cruciform space, the wings of which have barrel-vaults . The only exception is the east end, where an apse is substituted for this space, and out of this apse spring three minor ones. Each dome is about hemispherical above its pendentives, and is pierced