The church was erected on the site where Saint Anthony was born. He travelled the world as a preacher, having died in Padua. The current temple was built in 1757, in the Baroque and Neoclassical styles, on the site of a chapel dating from the 15^th Century. Its noteworthy elements include the image of the Patron Saint, which survived the 1755 earthquake, the crypt on the place where the Saint was born, the paintings by Pedro Alexandrino and the Museum. Pope Saint John Paul II visited the church in 1982.