The human presence in the area goes back to the first millennium BC, when also the first settlements in the Venice lagoon took place. In Roman times Caorle was the port of nearby Julia Concordia. The barbaric invasions of the Huns in Italy drove the people of the hinterland of Veneto and Friuli to take refuge in the lagoons, and Caorle was founded in that period (5th century AD).
The origins of this little town are very old and date back to the Bronze Age.
In 876 it became a diocese and in the following centuries provided crafts to the Venetian fleet. The town's decay followed the fall of the Serenissima Republic after the Treaty of Campoformio, which delivered Venice to Austria. Only after the end of the Habsburg domination and the two world wars, Caorle began to revive as a tourist destination.