The Church of Saint Victor was built on the ruins of an earlier church and was commissioned by the Archbishop of Braga, Luís de Sousa (1677-1690). Its construction date is 1686, but it was consecrated by Archbishop João de Sousa (1696-1703).

D. Luís de Sousa placed the church in a dominant position, on a small artificially altered elevation, reminiscent of the sanctuaries of the time. To design the church, he had the help of the famous Miguel Lescol, a French military engineer, the master masons Pascoal Fernandes and Estêvão Moreira and the carver Domingos Lopes to make the altarpiece; and the most important tile painter in the country at that time, the Spaniard Gabriel del Barco and Minusca. In the project he developed for the church of São Victor, Lescol was seduced by a new artistic language, the Baroque.