A former convent of the Dominican order, it is located outside the town centre, in a place of great natural beauty, as it stands on a promontory above the Huécar gorge, quite high above the riverbed and opposite the Casas Colgadas (Hanging Houses).

The architects of the church were the brothers Juan and Pedro de Alviz and its architecture is typical of the early 16th century: Gothic structure and Renaissance decoration. It is popularly known as "los Paules".

Nothing is known of Pedro de Alviz's apprenticeship as an architect, although he probably trained under the Gothic ideal, which meant that in the 16th century, the transition from Gothic to Renaissance in Spain, it was much easier for him, like the other artists from Cuenca, to adapt his first structures to Renaissance decoration, which hardly changed and continued to be medieval for quite some time. Thus its religious architecture, as can be seen in the church of San Pablo, responds to approaches typical of the early 16th century: Gothic structure and Renaissance decoration.

Since 1993 the convent has been operating as a Parador Nacional.

The convent of San Pablo is made up of the church, built on the prow, as if advancing along the Huécar gorge, the cloister to its right and another series of buildings that have grown attached to the main body according to the needs of the different orders that have been housed in the convent. The church and the cloister date from the 16th century, while the rest of the buildings date from a later period. The building is perched on a promontory (a type of promontory popularly known as "Hocino") overlooking the Huécar gorge.

The founder, Juan del Pozo, a canon of Cuenca, was buried in the middle of the transept of the convent church, with a bas-relief surface of white stone. The tomb was later removed from the middle of the transept and attached to the right wall of the church.