Gothic architecture was brought to Portugal by the Cistercian order at the end of the 12th century.
In the 13th and 14th centuries the Gothic style where mainly disseminated by the mendicant orders.
The Mendicant style usually consisted of a 3 aisled nave with wooden roofing and an apse
with three chapels covered with rib vaulting.
Decoration is kept to a minimum and the interiors are sober fitting with the mendicant ideals of the time.
The São Francisco (Saint Francis) Convent in Santarém is one of the best examples of this style in Portugal fitting the ideals of this time. The convent was build in the 13th century and has a nice Gothic cloister worth seeing, king Ferdinand the first is buried here.
The church was renovated in the last century.