The Faculty of Letters is the third largest of the eighteen schools at the University of Lisbon. It acquired its current name in 1911, when it succeeded the Curso Superior de Letras, created in 1859 from a fund donated by King Pedro V.  

Its teaching and research has always focused on the main areas of the humanities, which today we call literary studies, philosophy, history and linguistics. Over time these areas have often been reconfigured to include new topics of development and interest.