From the beginning it was housed in the former Convent of Saint Francisco in the Chiado district of the Portuguese capital, with the buildings still suffering from the effects of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.

The Lisbon School of Fine Arts started in 1881 when the academy's teaching sector was made autonomous, although it was not formally established until 1925, when the necessary regulations were published.

The original Academy of Fine Arts continues to exist as a library, archive, and organizer of literary, and cultural events although it was closed between 1911 and 1932.

[1][4] In 2008, a new curriculum review adapted undergraduate and master's degrees to the Bologna Process, a system for harmonizing higher education qualifications in the European Union, with degrees in art and heritage sciences, artistic anatomy, multimedia art, communication design and new media, being created.

Among the artists and architects who have studied there are: José Luís Monteiro, Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, José Malhoa, Veloso Salgado, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, Guilherme de Santa-Rita, Eduardo Viana, Abel Manta, Cassiano Branco, Francisco Keil do Amaral, Júlio Pomar, António Dacosta, Helena Almeida, Lourdes Castro, Gonçalo Byrne, Julião Sarmento, Ana Jotta, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Pedro Calapez, José Pedro Croft, Teresa Magalhães, and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva.