Places to see in Fátima |
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There is such a wealth of sight in and around Fátima that it can appear confusing. Once you are there, however, you’ll find everything well indicated and everyone will be pleased to guide you. It does help to know the principal sites in advance, however. One place to start is at the homes where the shepherds grew up. These are in fact about 3 km south of the sanctuary in Fátima, in a little hamlet called Aljustrel. The homes have been left as they were at the time of the apparitions and visitors can appreciate how simple and modest the physical conditions in which they grew up were. At the end of the garden of one of these houses is the well where the "Angel of Peace" appeared for the second time. About a kilometre closer to the sanctuary one can visit the town of Fátima and the children’s parish church. They were baptised here, had their first confession and communion and two of them were buried here before being transferred to the sanctuary. The next important site when one approaches the sanctuary is called Valinhos. This was the site of Mary’s fourth apparition on 19 August 1917. The children had been imprisoned on 13 August and had thus not been at Cova da Iria as she had instructed. Here she told them to continue visiting the site the two following months. Close to here, on a little hill called the “Place of the Angel”, is where the angel appeared to the children the first and the third time. Here the Holy Way, which ends at the sanctuary itself, starts. This has 14 little chapels in memory of the Passion of Jesus and a 15th in memory of the Resurrection. The Holy Way follows the path which the children used from Aljustrel to the Cova da Iria. The sanctuary itself is built on a site called the Cova da Iria, which was where the shepherds pastured their sheep and where they were visited five times by Mary. The heart of the sanctuary is a small, simple chapel known as the "Little Chapel of the Apparitions". This was the first building to be erected here and marks the exact spot of the apparitions. The holly oak above which Mary appeared has long since been destroyed by relic seekers, but a column with a statue of Mary stands in its place. The holly oak which grows close by is said to be where the children awaited the apparitions. The Basilica of Our Lady of Fátima crowns the sanctuary. Built between 1928 and 1953 it contains, in addition to the spectacular altars, paintings, statues and stained glass, the tombs of the shepherds. Suitable clothing is required to enter. It stands at one end of the huge square, twice as large as St. Peter’s in Rome, and is filled with pilgrims on the important celebration days. The centre of the square contains the Monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, built over a spring that has been "the instrument of many graces." On the opposite side of the square is the new Church of the Most Holy Trinity, the fourth largest Christian church in the world, capable of accommodating 8,500 people. It’s modern architecture is not immediately to everyone’s taste, but it is certainly magnificent. |
