Plan a trip to Fatima

One of the most important places of worship in Catholic Christianity and a focus of believers and pilgrims.

On May 13, 1917, 3 rural children saw a vision of the Holy Virgin speaking to them and she foresaw the future and demanded prayer and sacrifice as a condition for peace in the world.

Additional visions have since then occurred every 13th of the month and will culminate in an incomprehensible vision on the 13th of October when 70 thousand pilgrims and skeptical onlookers saw the sun spinning in the sky like a ball.

This phenomenon ignited a spiritual awakening in Portugal, millions of people visit this special site mainly between May 13 and October 13.

A huge church was built in 1953, a white and solemn building surrounded by columns and in the place where the visions took place, Capela Das Aoricoes was built and in front of a wide, enormous dimension where the believers gather and they reach it on a paved path that is 1 km on the knees and elbows and believe that their prayers will be answered. Inside the church are the graves of the 3 shepherd children.

Another basilica was established in 2007 with the spectacular altar picture by the Irish artist Catherine Green, and a beautiful mosaic work by the Slovenian artist Marko Rupnik.

At the entrance to the sacred compound is a piece of the Berlin Wall, a tribute to 'God's part in the fall of communism'.

Pilgrimage tourism has developed around the place, and hundreds of stalls sell cheap religious items, candles and amulets.

According to tradition, the town's name refers to a Muslim princess who lived there after the occupation, fell in love with a Christian knight, converted to Christianity and stayed.