After the Christian conquest from the Moors, Afonso Henriques moved the capital of the kingdom from Guimarães to Coimbra, a strategic location and point of departure for future incursions into the Muslim south.

The masters of the monastery, such as Fernando Martins de Bulhão (later Anthony of Padua), helped motivate the cultural development of the nation's nobility, profoundly reformulated during the reign of Manuel I.

[2] King John III developed the area of Santa Cruz by transferring, definitively, to Coimbra the University, under the administration of friar Brás de Braga; this resulted initially in the construction of the Manga Garden, but was followed by the opening of the Rua da Sofia, which became the centre of many of the religious orders of the Kingdom.

[3] The parish is intersected by several rivers, including: the Mondego River (which flows from the Serra da Estrela to Figueira da Foz) through the parish, from Rua dos Oleiros until Choupal; the Ribeira de Coselhas (springing from the Serras do Roxo/Aveleira and exiting at the Rio Velho) and bisects east to west in the zone of Coselhas; the Vale do Norte, crosses the parish south to north around Campos do Bolão passing around Loreto in Pedrulha, before exiting in Adémia; the Ribeira do Vale Meão, which crosses from the Rego do Bonfim joining the Ribeira de Coselhas near Fucoli; and the Vala dos Frades, which parallels the rail-line and Vala do Norte, before joining it near Pedrulha.

[3] Although economic activities are essentially commerce- or service-based, an extensive agricultural space (in the area of Campos do Bolão) and industrial zone (in Pedrulha) is established in the parish, which is supported by public transport, infrastructures and socio-cultural institutions.