Fatima, Portugal

Fátima is a town in Portugal famous for the religious visions that reportedly took place there in 1917. The town itself has a population of 7,756 and is located in the municipality of Ourém, in the Centro Region and sub region of Médio Tejo. It is in the district of Santarém and is included in the urban agglomeration of Leiria, in central Portugal, 187 km, south of Porto and 123 km, north of Lisbon.

Fátima is famous for the shrine called the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, built to commemorate the events of 1917 when three peasant children claimed to have seen the "Virgin of the Rosary", Our Lady of Fátima. When the children asked for her name, she said "I am The Lady of The Rosary". The children experienced the reported Marian apparitions in a pasture called the Cova da Iria.

The Marian shrine in Fátima attracts a large number of Catholics, and every year pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the shrine with crowds that approach one million on May 13 and October 13, the significant dates of Fátima apparitions.

On the far side of the esplanade rises the gigantic basilica, in neo-classical style, with a central tower 65 meters high, the construction of which was begun on 13 May 1928. It is flanked by colonnades linking it with the extensive conventual and hospital buildings. In the basilica are the tombs of the three seers, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, who died in 1919 and 1920 respectively in the Spanish flu pandemic, and were beatified in 2000, and Lúcia dos Santos who died in 2005. The Igreja da Santíssima Trindade, one of the largest churches in the world, was built on the other side of the esplanade during the 2000s.

Source: Wikipedia