As Afonso Henriques advanced on Gharb al-Andalus, the southern region of al-Andalus, and conquered the regions near the river Tagus, a series of churches were founded on each of these newly annexed cities. In Sintra, the first church to be raised was São Pedro de Canaferrim, within the Castle walls. It is likely soon after this, either during Afonso Henrique's reign or that of his son, Sancho I, that the Church of São Martinho, or Saint Martin of Tours, was erected. The statutes were granted in 1283, although officially they were approved in 1306. It became a Matriz church, which describes a parish that oversees a group of other parishes in the region. It was in this very church that the baptisms and weddings of residents in the area of São Martinho were performed. Its importance for the town is attested through documentation from the mid-fourteenth century: several victims of the bubonic plague epidemic, which had swept the country at the time, donated their goods to this church upon their deaths.