The Convent of Vilar de Frades is located in Areias de Vilar, Barcelos, and was founded in the year 556 by Bishop S. Martinho de Dume, although this is not proven. At that time, no traces remain, since the Muslim invasions led to its ruin. The space began as a Benedictine Monastery in the 11th century.

In 1425 it was given to a new congregation, the Canons of S. Salvador de Vilar de Frades, known as Lóios, becoming the mother house of the congregation in Portugal.

After 1834, the Convent of Vilar de Frades passed to the State and was later sold at public auction. From an area of ​​90 hectares, everything was sold privately, except for the church, the sacristy and the cloister, which was used as a parish residence. The convent wings and the convent fence were closed and sold to private individuals, initially transforming it into a farm. In 1953 it was acquired by Artur Cupertino de Miranda who, in 1957, sold it to the Hospital Order of S. João de Deus which, to this day, is present there with the Casa de Saúde S. José, for the mentally ill. .

In the 1960s, the Hospital Order of S. João de Deus ceded to the City Council of Barcelos the fountain in the cloister of the Convent of Vilar de Frades, which is now located in Largo da Porta Nova and is listed as a National Monument.

It has been considered a national monument since 1910. In 1994, the redevelopment works of the Convent of Vilar de Frades began and in 2006 the space was opened to the public.