[2] The monastery was founded around 1490, outside the city walls of Setúbal, by Justa Rodrigues Pereira, a noblewoman of the Portuguese royal court.

After 1491, King John II started sponsoring the building of the monastery, which he commissioned Diogo de Boitaca (or Boytac), an architect of unknown origin, possibly French.

In 1992, IGESPAR, under the Cultural Ministry of Portugal, declared the monastery to be a national monument holding intangible value to Portuguese heritage.

[6] The church of the Monastery of Jesus, built between 1490 and 1510, is a very significant monument of Portuguese architecture, since it is the earliest known building in which aspects of the Manueline style of decoration were employed.

These spiralling columns, made from Breccia from the Serra da Arrábida [pt]) would also be a typical theme in later Manueline buildings, like the Guarda Cathedral.

[10] The adjacent monastery has been turned into an art museum with a top collection of Flemish and Portuguese Primitive painters from the 15th and 16th centuries.

Under King Manuel I (around 1520), the church was decorated with a 14-panel, painted altarpiece by one of Portugal's main Renaissance artists, Jorge Afonso.

Another part of the museum is dedicated to Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage, a famous 18th-century poet born in Setúbal.