[2][3] José Luis Monteiro was born in Lisbon, Portugal on 25 October 1848.

[4] At age 12, Monteiro enrolled in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Lisbon.

[5] In 1880, Monteiro returned to Portugal where he assumed a role as chief architect for the Lisbon City Council, in addition to a teaching position at the city's Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where he originally trained.

Monteiro utilized a number of different architectural styles including Neoclassicism and French Second Empire.

He is most well known for his revolutionary use of metal in the interior Rossio Railway Station; the building contained one of the first iron vaults in the nation.