Sanctuary of Fátima

When we visited Portugal in 2018, we had several cities and sites we were certain we would want to visit. Besides the historical connection to Brazil, there were some specific cities in our list where we knew we would make our base to visit surrounding areas. Among those cities, there was Fátima.

Located in central Portugal, Fátima is well known among religious pilgrims around the world because it was in that city where the Virgin Mary made some apparitions to three shepherd children starting on May 13, 1917.

What started with a small chapel in 1918 has now turned into a complex with two minor basilicas. The Sanctuary of Fátima encompasses several units, with the most famous being the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary (click on photos to enlarge). Of course the Basilica took several years to be built. Ten years after the first apparition of the Virgin Mary, there was a pilgrimage in Fátima. Then in 1928, the construction of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary started. It was finally consecrated in 1953. The compound has been expanding ever since. The church is built in solid limestone in the Neo-Baroque style. Below you can see photos I made in the interior of the Basilica.

Nowadays, some six to eight millions pilgrims visit that shrine yearly. Near the Basilica there is a small chapel (Chapel of the Apparitions) which is believed to have been built in the area where the Virgin Mary appeared to Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto. Across the plaza, the Basilica of the Holy Trinity was built in 1953 to accommodate more pilgrims.

Every evening, visitors come to the plaza to pray a rosary. There is a large procession that takes place at the end of the rosary. The prayers are said in several languages, and the whole event takes about 2-3 hours. It is a very moving candle-lit procession with thousands of participants.