The parish of Lourinhã became one of the richest of the Lisbon Diocese, as reflected by its main church, a fine example of 14th-century Portuguese Gothic architecture.

The Gothic works of the main church were sponsored by Lourenço Vicente, a Lourinhã-born Archbishop of Braga who received the village as a donation of King John I in 1384.

Starting at the end of the 19th century, the infrastructure of the municipality was modernised with roads, canalised water and electric light, as well as improvements in the educational system.

Tourism is an increasingly important source of revenue, due to the municipality's extensive, picturesque beaches and, more recently, by the paleontological remains from the eponymous Lourinhã Formation, which include fossilised bones, footprints, eggs and even embryos from Jurassic dinosaurs.

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 8 civil parishes (freguesias):[3] Lourinhã has a Mediterranean climate with warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters.