Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima

 Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima

We stayed 2 days at Coimbra and caught up on the washing, etc.  On the drive from Coimbra to Lisbon we stopped off at Fatima and went to see the Sanctuary of Lady of Fatima. 

The sanctuary is huge, it has an old cathedral and a new church.  There is a bitumen section between the two church’s that is 250m x 110m and at some events they fill the space with people.  So really there is three including the open air section, the bitumen section is setup with its own platform, big screen, etc. 

The story goes that back in 1917 three shepherd children said they saw the Virgin Mary and she told them that they should build a sanctuary. So they did.!

6.3 million people a year visit the spot.

You will also see in some of the pictures that some people crawl on their knees the 170 meters to prove their faith.  There were several people doing this when we were there.  

This is a google map picture of the place.