Originally housing a community of monks, it initially prospered as a major point of trade between the Christian inhabitants to its north and the Muslim kingdoms to its south.

At the start of the 20th century, the buildings were converted into a psychiatric hospital, at the same time being declared a National Monument of the country.

The hospital lasted a century and the government is currently developing the property into a museum of the sacred arts under the supervision of the architect João Mendes Ribeiro.

The community initially prospered as a major point of trade between the Christian inhabitants to its north and the Muslim kingdoms to its south.

[2] At that point, the monastery was entrusted to the Benedictine monks of Cluny Abbey in France, who were made responsible for the agrarian development of the surrounding region.

One, known as the Book of Birds, a bestiary, is the illustration of a manuscript by the contemporary canon regular Hugues de Fouilloy and dated 1184.

She chose to have the monks removed and established a community of 300 nuns, who were to live under the Cistercian Rule, with herself as abbess, though she herself was unable to take religious vows until after the death of her husband in 1230.

Thus in May 1834 King Pedro IV declared the Dissolution of the monasteries in Portugal, intending to sell the seized properties to provide for the poor.