Previously there was a temple of the IX and X century, identified in the convent recovery process, some stretches of the same that could have been a Ducal Palace of the first Portucalense Condes. Dona Mafalda, the first Portuguese Queen, founded here in 1154, a Augustinian monastery. In the sixteenth century, he would be in decay, and the monastery was assigned to the monks of S. Jeronimo, on the initiative of D.jaime, fourth Duke of Bragança. In the eighteenth century, the facade of the Church in late baroque style, with the images of Santa Marinha, S. Jeronym and Sta. Paula. The style of the time also built a staircase on landames in the alignment of the facade. The monastery cloister is from the finals of the sixteenth century. This monastery has a collection of historized tiles painted by Polycarpo de Oliveira Bernardes for the monks of S. Jeronimo. After recovering by the state was converted to the Pousada according to the Arq project. Fernando Tavora.

Everything will have started by building, in the IX century, a small basilica on the slope of the mountain of Penha, already sacred from prehistory. In the fifth century the Countess Mumadona Dias here raises a monastery, then extended by Dona Mafalda exposes of D.afonso Henriques.