Santuário de Fátima
12 images 1 contributors Shoot with care
Sue Wolfe
Shoot with care
This is a place of worship visited by pilgrims from all over the world. Be respectful of those in prayer and dress appropriately.
About this spot
Portugal has religious sites that have been around for centuries—Convento de Cristo, Mosteiro de Alcobaça, Mosteiro da Batalha, and Jerónimos Monastery to name a few. But it also has a fairly new one. The Shrine of Fatima was built on the spot where three shepherd children were visited by the Virgin Mary in 1917 over a period of 6 months. During the visions, the Virgin Mary gave the children various messages and predictions about the future.
While there has been much skepticism and controversy over the apparitions, the Catholic Church officially recognized the apparition events as “worthy of belief” in 1930. In 1935, the bodies of two of the children who died from the Spanish Flu were reinterred in the new basilica. Sister Lucia died at the age of 97 and was buried at the Santuário de Fátima in 2006.
Pilgrims travel to Fatima year-round but the 13th day of the month from May to October are the days that celebrate the appearance of the Virgin Mary to the children. On those days hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gather at Fatima and fill the square.
The entire complex is quite large. Inside are 15 altars corresponding to the 15 mysteries of the rosary and an organ that has 12,000 pipes. The apparitions are illustrated in the basilica’s stained-glass windows. The Colonnade contains 200 columns and half-columns resembling the curved colonnade in St. Peter’s Square. The square itself is twice as large as St. Peters.
While there has been much skepticism and controversy over the apparitions, the Catholic Church officially recognized the apparition events as “worthy of belief” in 1930. In 1935, the bodies of two of the children who died from the Spanish Flu were reinterred in the new basilica. Sister Lucia died at the age of 97 and was buried at the Santuário de Fátima in 2006.
Pilgrims travel to Fatima year-round but the 13th day of the month from May to October are the days that celebrate the appearance of the Virgin Mary to the children. On those days hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gather at Fatima and fill the square.
The entire complex is quite large. Inside are 15 altars corresponding to the 15 mysteries of the rosary and an organ that has 12,000 pipes. The apparitions are illustrated in the basilica’s stained-glass windows. The Colonnade contains 200 columns and half-columns resembling the curved colonnade in St. Peter’s Square. The square itself is twice as large as St. Peters.
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