After the period of Visigothic domination, the city was conquered by the Moors and stayed under Arab control from the 8th to the 12th century, although Christians were allowed to live in Lisbon and its surroundings.

An English crusader named Gilbert of Hastings was installed as bishop, and a new cathedral was built on the site of the main mosque of Lisbon.

At that time, the relics of St Vincent of Saragossa, patron saint of Lisbon, were brought to the cathedral from Southern Portugal.

[2] This brotherhood evolved into the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, a Catholic charitable institution that later spread to other cities and had a very important role in Portugal and its colonies.

During the Portuguese interregnum of 1383–85, the populace suspected that Bishop Dom Martinho Annes was plotting with the Castilians and an angry crowd threw him out of the window of the northern tower[3] Earthquakes have always been a problem for Lisbon and its cathedral.

In recent years, the central courtyard of the cloister has been excavated and remains from the Roman, Visigothic and mediaeval periods have been found.

At the end of the 13th century King Dinis of Portugal ordered the construction of a cloister in Gothic style, which became severely damaged by the 1755 earthquake.

The second storey of the ambulatory is covered by ribbed vaulting and has a series of windows (clerestory) that bathe the interior with abundant light.

One tomb belongs to Lopo Fernandes Pacheco, 7th Lord of Ferreira de Aves, a nobleman at the service of King Afonso IV.

Machado de Castro, Portugal's foremost sculptor in the late 18th century, is the author of a magnificent crib in the Gothic chapel of Bartomoleu Joanes.