The Convent of Nossa Senhora da Arrábida, which belonged to the Franciscan Province of Arrábida, is half hidden among the trees on the southern slope of the Serra da Arrábida, facing the sea, in the municipality of Setúbal. This 16th century building was once a Franciscan convent. It is now included in the Arrábida Natural Park. The five round towers on the cliff were probably used for solitary meditation.

The foundation of a convent in Serra da Arrábida dates back to the end of 1538-1539, when Dom João de Lencastre 1st Duke of Aveiro promised Friar Martinho (Martín de Santa Maria Benavides), a barefoot Andalusian friar of the Order of San Francisco, to fulfill the his desire to lead an eremitic life dedicated exclusively to Our Lady.

The duke ceded the Serra da Arrábida to him, where there was already a hermitage open to worship in which the image known as Nossa Senhora da Arrábida was venerated. It was at this time that Saint Pedro de Alcântara came to help his relative, the Spanish friar, to create the Franciscan custody of Arrábida, then subject to the General Minister of convent Franciscans. Later the custody of Arrábida was elevated to the Province of Arrábida and was formally subject, albeit with a high degree of autonomy, to the Minister General of the Franciscan Observants. The Arrábidos friars, as they were popularly known, began by officially calling themselves the Franciscans Descalços and later, as the constitutions drafted by S. Pedro de Acântara, Franciscans Descalços Alcantarinos or Franciscans Alcantarinos for short.