[1] From surveys of the building, at least two former structures occupied the same place: one built around the 10th century, from which two Pre-Romanesque capitals are preserved in the interior; and another consecrated in 1098, by the Bishop of Braga, from which the lower part of the main chapel has survived.

[2] It has been debated that, following his reconquest of the city of Porto, Vímara Peres, in 868, constructed or rebuilt a temple (whose remaining two triumphal arch capitals were later reused in the Romanesque period).

[2][3] One of the vestiges of this period was the use of soft limestone (from the region of Coimbra), a fact that contrasts with the widespread use of granite in later public works.

[1] By the 16th century, the College of Cedofeita was one of the largest property-owners in the area of Porto, supported by land-rents from the district and donations from the faith community.

[1] The front entranceway was tiled (hiding the original western facade), while a new bell-tower and a southern cloister were built, at the same time the chancel was extended by two metres, while its barrel ceiling was elaborated in stucco.

[1] An inscription was made into the western door tympanum around 1767, stating that the Church was founded in 559 by King Theodemar, and consecrated by the Bishop of Braga, Lucrécio (561–562).

[1] Composed of a single nave and rectangular chancel, the structure of the apse church is designed around a barrel vault in articulated spaces covered by a tiled-roof typical in Portugal.

[1][4][5] The principal facade (oriented to the west) is marked by a single portico with three semi-circular arches, decorated with animals and birds, supported on rounded-columns.

[1] Owing to the barrel ceiling within the nave, the church facades are reinforced with lateral exterior buttresses (some staggered examples are not original to the main building and may have been added in the 17th–18th century).