Fátima, located 80km north of Lisbon de Lisboa, is best known for the famous apparitions that took place in 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 Marian apparitions in a pasture called the Cova da Iria which drew the attention of

thousands and thousands of peoples to the location were they occurred with the intention of seeing

themselves the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The large torch-light processions in honor of the Virgin Mary, which is organised in the evening, are

particularly impressive. The pilgrims gather in the Cova, on a huge esplanade in which is built a little

chapel where the Virgin is believed to have appeared to the children.

On the far side of the esplanade rises the gigantic basilica, in neo-classical style, with a central tower

65 metres (213 ft) 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.