The Hieronymites Monastery of Santa Maria de Belém is a former monastery of the Order of St. Jerome and is located in the Belém district of Lisbon, Portugal.

Designed in the Manueline style by the architect Juan de Castillo, it was commissioned by King Manuel I of Portugal to commemorate the fortunate return of Vasco da Gama from India. It was founded in 1501 on the site of the Ermida do Restelo on what was once Restelo beach, a hermitage founded by Henry the Navigator, and where Vasco da Gama and his men spent the night in prayer before leaving for India. The first stage of construction of the new church began in 1514 and was extended and modified until the 20th century. It was financed by 5 percent of the taxes collected from oriental spices, with the exception of pepper, cinnamon and cloves, the revenues from which went directly to the Crown.

The Manueline style is characterised by a mixture of late Gothic and Renaissance architectural and decorative motifs. The main and side portals, the interior of the church and the magnificent cloister stand out. The chapels of the church were remodelled in pure Renaissance style in the second half of the 16th century and contain the burial chests of Manuel I and his family, as well as other kings of Portugal.

The Hieronymites also contains the (neo-Manueline) tombs of the navigator Vasco da Gama and the poet Luís de Camões. The remains of the writer Fernando Pessoa have rested in a chapel in the cloister since 1985.

An annex built in 1850 houses the National Museum of Archaeology, while the Museu da Marinha is located in the west wing.

In December 2007, the Treaty of Lisbon, a European Union agreement that replaces the European Constitution and reforms the existing treaties, was signed in this monastery.

This monastery, like the nearby Belém Tower and the Monument to the Discoveries, symbolises the Portuguese Age of Exploration and is one of Lisbon's main tourist attractions. Together with the Belém Tower, the Jerónimos Monastery was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

The Jerónimos Monastery replaced a previous church on the same site, which was dedicated to Santa Maria de Belém and in whose rooms the monks of the Order of Christ gave aid to sailors on their way. The port of Praia do Restelo was an advantageous area for sailors due to its safe anchorage and safety from the strong wind, coveted by ships entering from the Tagus estuary. The present structure was inaugurated by the monarch Manuel I (1469-1521) in 1495 as a resting place for the House of Avís, believing that a dynasty would unite the Iberian kingdoms after his death. In 1496, Manuel I asked the Pope for permission to build a monastery in the area. The Restelo hermitage, as it was known, was already abandoned when Vasco da Gama and his crew spent the night praying the night before their expedition to the East in 1497.

Construction of the monastery and church began on 6 January 1501 and was completed a century later. King Manuel originally financed the project with the money obtained from the Vintena da Pimienta, the 5% tax on trade with Africa and the Orient, equivalent to 70 kilograms of gold per year, with the exception of those taxes collected from the import of pepper, cinnamon and cloves, which went directly to the Crown. Due to the large budget, the architects did not skimp and designed large projects, and even the resources previously earmarked for the monastery of Batalha, including the pantheon of the Avís, were redirected to the pharaonic project in Belém.

Manuel I decided that the monks of the Order of Saint Jerome should occupy the monastery, destined to pray for the eternal soul of the monarch and to provide spiritual assistance to the sailors and navigators who sailed from the port of Restelo to discover lands around the world.

The monastery was designed in a style later known as Manueline: a rich architectural ornamentation with complex sculptural themes incorporating maritime elements and objects discovered during naval expeditions, sculpted in limestone. The first stage of construction was entrusted to the French-born architect Diogo de Boitaca, author of the primitive church of Jesús de Setúbal. Boitaca was in charge of drawing the plans and contracting the works for the monastery, the sacristy and the refectory, for which he used lioz stone, a golden-coloured limestone extracted from Ajuda, the Alcántara valley, Laveiras, Rio Seco and Tercena. Boitaca worked on the building in 1514 and 1516, although his project was not carried out, as it was replaced by the project of the next architect. He planned the work according to the standards prevailing at the time throughout late Gothic Europe. Little remains of this period today.

In 1517 he was succeeded in the works by Juan de Castillo (in Portugal he was known as João de Castilho). Juan de Castillo was of Spanish origin according to a document in which his relatives state that Juan de Castillo was a native of the Merindad de Trasmiera in the kingdom of Castile... specifically of Castillo, a small town in the region of Trasmiera in Cantabria. It is known that he worked in Spain until 1505. With Castillo, the work began on its greatest scale and corresponds to the best parts of the building in the Manueline style, combining it with Plateresque and Renaissance structures. Under his direction, the church with the most daring vaults, the cloister, the sacristy, the chapter house and the refectory were built.

After the death of King Manuel (1521) the works were stopped and continued under King John III, until they were later continued by the architect Diogo de Torralva in 1544, whose date is engraved in stone, who added the main chapel, the choir and completed the two floors of the monastery, using Renaissance themes. The difference in style between this architect's work and that of previous architects is shown above all in the large high frieze by Diego de la Zarza and in the introduction of the medallions turned sideways. Torralva's work was continued in 1571 by Jérôme de Rouen, who added some classical elements. Construction was interrupted in 1580 after the union of Spain and Portugal, an event that caused all the revenues to be directed to the monastery of El Escorial, built by Philip II of Spain.

On 16 July 1604, Philip II of Spain converted the monastery into a royal mausoleum, allowing access only to the royal family and Hieronymite monks. A new doorway was built in 1625, as well as a door to the cloister, the guardians' house, a staircase and a vestibule which was the entrance to the upper choir designed by the architect Teodósio Frias and executed by the mason Diogo Vaz. In 1640, the prior Bento de Siqueira ordered the construction of the monastery library, where the collection of Infante Luis, son of King Manuel I, and other books related to the religious order were deposited.

With the recovery of Portuguese independence in 1640, the monastery regained considerable importance, becoming the burial place of the royal family; four of the eight children of John IV of Portugal were buried within its walls: the Infant Teodósio, the Infanta Juana, King Alfonso VI and Catherine of Bragança. In 1682, Henry I of Portugal was buried in the transept chapel. On 29 September 1855, the body of Alfonso VI was transferred to the royal pantheon of the House of Bragança in the monastery of São Vicente de Fora, together with his three brothers and his sister.

In 1663, the Brotherhood of the Lord of the Steps occupied the former chapel of Saint Anthony, which had been redecorated with a gilded tiled ceiling in 1669, while the frescoed staircase with the heraldry of Saint Jerome was completed in 1770. The altarpieces were completed between 1709 and 1711, valuable alphabets were presented to the religious order and the sacristy was redecorated in 1713. The artist Enrique Ferreira was commissioned in 1720 to paint the monarchs of Portugal: this royal series was located in the Hall of the Kings. Ferreira was also commissioned to execute a series of paintings related to the Nativity.

Miraculously, the monastery did not suffer major damage during the 1755 Lisbon earthquake: only the balustrade and part of the upper choir were badly damaged, although they were quickly repaired.7 On 28 December 1833, the Jerónimos monastery was secularised by state decree and its property was transferred to the Royal Pious House of Lisbon to serve as a parish church for the new civil parish of Santa Maria de Belém. During this period of disentailment, many of the works of art and treasures were transferred to the Crown or lost. Their use was relegated to the background and the building began to deteriorate.

Restoration work began after 1860, starting with the south façade under the supervision of the architect Rafael Silva e Castro, and in 1898 by Domingos Parente da Silva. Although the cloister cistern, internal clerical cells and the kitchen were demolished, three reconstruction projects proposed by the architect J. Colson, which included the introduction of neo-Manueline elements, were rejected. In 1863, the architect Valentim José Correia was hired by the defender of the Casa Pia, Eugénio de Almeida, to reorganise the first floor of the old dormitories and the design of the windows (1863-65). He was later replaced by Samuel Barret, who built the towers at the western end of the dormitories. Inexplicably, the architect was again replaced by the Italian landscape designers Rambois and Cinatti, who had worked on the design of the National Theatre of St Charles, and continued the work on the monastery. Between 1867 and 1868 they extensively altered the annexe and the façade of the church, giving it its present appearance, demolished the gallery and the Hall of the Kings, built the towers of the eastern dormitories and the rose window of the upper choir, and replaced the pyramidal roof of the bell tower with a mithral design. This remodelling suffered some delays due to the collapse of the central dormitory in 1878. Raymundo Valladas began to collaborate on the project in 1884, and two years later began the restoration of the cloister and the Chapter House, including the construction of a vault. The tomb of Alexandre Herculano, designed by Eduardo Augusto da Silva, was placed in the Sala do Capítulo in 1888.

On the occasion of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Vasco da Gama's arrival in India in 1898, it was decided to restore the explorer's tomb four years earlier. The mausoleums of Vasco da Gama and Luís de Camões, sculpted by the artist Costa Mota, were erected in the south side chapel. A year later, the monastery received the mortal remains of the poet João de Deus, and later the tombs of Almeida Garrett (1902), Sidónio Pais (1918), Guerra Junqueiro (1923) and Teófilo Braga (1924) were added.

The Portuguese Ministry of Public Works approved a public competition to finish the annexe, which was to be used as the National Museum of Industry and Commerce, although this project was cancelled in 1899 and the Portuguese Ethnological Museum was placed in its place.89 In 1898 the remodelling begun by Parente da Silva a few years earlier was continued in the central annexe, now simplified, as well as the restoration of the choir stalls, which was completed in 1924 by the sculptor Costa Mota. In 1938 the organ located in the upper choir was dismantled at the same time as a series of stained glass windows, designed by Abel Manta and executed by Ricardo Leone, were replaced in the southern façade.

As part of the centenary celebrations of modern Portugal in 1939, further restoration work was completed on the monastery and tower. During these projects, the baldachin and the tomb of Alexandre Herculano were dismantled and the cloister courtyard was paved. In 1940, the esplanade in front of the monastery was redesigned for the Portuguese World Exhibition. The Casa Pia emptied the interior spaces of the cloister and the tombs of Camões and Vasco da Gama were moved to the lower choir. A series of windows designed by Rebocho and executed by Alves Mendes were completed in 1950.

In 1951 the mortal remains of President Óscar Carmona were buried in the Sala do Capítulo. However, in 1966 they were transferred to the National Pantheon to join the tombs of other presidents and literary symbols of the country. The Navy Museum was inaugurated in the west wing of the monastery in 1963. In 1983, Unesco declared the Jerónimos Monastery and Belém Tower a World Heritage Site. When Portugal joined the European Economic Community in 1985, the official ceremony was held in the cloister of the monument.

At the end of the 20th century, some conservation works took place, such as the cleaning and restoration of the main chapel in 1999 and of the cloister between 1998 and 2002. On 13 December 2007, the Treaty of Lisbon was signed in the monastery, laying the foundations for the reform of the European Union.

Art critics consider the monastery to be the jewel of the Manueline style and one of the most important monuments in Lisbon and Portugal.

It was designed by the architect Juan de Castillo, who was inspired by the late Gothic style still in use today, with the introduction of Plateresque decoration and Renaissance elements. It is divided vertically into two sections. The lower section consists of a large ogee arch that shelters two access doors. The tympanum features bas-reliefs depicting the life of Saint Jerome and the Portuguese coat of arms. The arch is surmounted by a sculpture of the Virgin of Belém. The upper part has a round-arched window. Both sections are bordered by late Gothic ornamentation, with statues under canopies and slender pinnacles.

It is a good example of the transition from Gothic to Renaissance. It was designed by Castillo, whose sculptures of King Manuel I and his wife Maria are by Nicolas de Chantarenne.

The interior is very spacious and luminous, with a single nave with a hall plan and a variegated Manueline decoration. The transept vault is grandiose and covers an area of 29 x 19 metres, with no central supports and a complex network of ribs. It was designed by Juan de Castillo in 1522. The nave vault was also designed by him and was built in 1520.

The main chapel was reformed in 1571 by the master Jerónimo Ruão following the traces provided by Diogo de Torralva in an advanced Renaissance style, in the same style as the main chapel of the church of the monastery of El Escorial. The altarpiece incorporates a series of panel paintings by Lourenço de Salzedo and a monumental 17th century tabernacle.10 The tombs of King Manuel I and his wife Maria and of John III and Catherine of Austria are supported on elephants in this chapel.

Sacristy: Designed by Juan Castillo in the Manueline style. Its vault is supported by a column in the centre. It houses a fine collection of paintings on the theme of the life of Saint Jerome, by various Portuguese mannerist artists.

Elsewhere in the church are the tombs of Vasco da Gama, with nautical symbols, and that of King Sebastian I, which is empty. This young man never returned from the battle of Alcazarquivir in 1578.

It is located next to the north nave of the church. It was designed by Juan de Castillo. It was carried out between 1517 and 1519 with various contracts and subcontracts, giving rise to a final result of harmony and uniformity.

The entire cloister is extensively decorated with Manueline motifs (letter M, armillary sphere, seafaring capes, religious themes, niches, medallions, etc.). From the upper floor you can access the choir loft of the church, which was built by Torralva in the 16th century. It contains an important choir stalls, also from the 16th century.

The refectory is quite large, covered by a good ribbed vault. Its construction was delegated to Leonardo Vaz, under the designs of Castillo. Its walls are decorated with the line of a rope and with 18th century tiles.

In the chapter house is the tomb of Alexandre Herculano (1810-1877), historian and first mayor of Belém. It was also designed by Castillo, leaving his half-brother Diego de Castillo among his riggers.