A project that represents the culmination of the most dramatic reform of the Order of Christ. It was transformed into a closed order, under the principles of the Order of S. Bento, by order of D. João III in 1529. The cloister designed by João de Castilho, between 1531 and 1550, according to the taste of the first Renaissance phase. Of this cloister, only the four entrances remained, which are now integrated into the later solution. In 1540 D. João III ordered the works corresponding to the João de Castilho project to be stopped, only fourteen years later he commissioned a new study from Diogo de Torrava (principal architect from 1554). The execution begins in the regency of Queen D. Catharina. Diogo de Torralva re-interprets the classic language of Sebastiano Serlio's architectural treatise, this whole new project is a return to classicism, repelling the decorative exuberance of the Manueline style.