The apparition is also referred to as Our Lady of the Rosary (a term first used in 1208 for the reputed apparition in the church of Prouille), because the children said the apparition called herself the “Lady of the Rosary”. A combination of these titles is also seen, i.e. Our Lady of the Rosary of Fátima (Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Fátima).

The events at Fátima gained fame due to elements of secrets, prophecy and eschatology, particularly with regard to World War II and possibly more World Wars in the future. Chief among these is also the alleged urgent need for the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The reported apparitions at Fátima were officially declared worthy of belief by the Catholic Church.

Initial apparitions

Three Portuguese children, Lucia dos Santos, Jacinta Marto, and Francisco Marto, were young and without much education when they reported the apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in 1917. The local administrator initially jailed the children and threatened that he would boil them one by one in a pot of oil. The children were consoled by the other inmates in the jail, and then led the inmates in praying the Rosary.^[2][3]

With millions of followers and Roman Catholic believers, the reported visions at Fatima gathered respect. After a canonical enquiry, the visions of Fátima were officially declared “worthy of belief” in October 1930 by the Bishop of Leiria-Fátima.^[4] Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI voiced their acceptance of the supernatural origin of the Fátima events. John Paul II credited Our Lady of Fátima with saving his life following an assassination attempt on the Feast of Our Lady of Fátima, 1981. He donated the bullet that wounded him to the Roman Catholic sanctuary at Fátima, Portugal and it was placed in the crown of the Virgin’s statue.

Fátima prayers and reparations

Many Roman Catholics recite prayers based on Our Lady of Fátima. Lúcia later said that, in 1916, she and her cousins had several visions of an angel calling himself the “Angel of Portugal” and the “Angel of Peace” who taught them to bow with their heads to the ground and to say “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love you.” Lúcia later set this prayer to music and a recording exists of her singing it.^[52] It was also said that sometime later the angel returned and taught them a eucharistic devotion now known as the Angel Prayer.^[53][54]

Lúcia said that the Lady emphasized Acts of Reparation and prayers to console Jesus for the sins of the world. Lúcia said that Mary’s words were “When you make some sacrifice, say ‘O Jesus, it is for your love, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’” At the first apparition, Lúcia wrote, the children were so moved by the radiance they perceived that they involuntarily said “Most Holy Trinity, I adore you! My God, my God, I love you in the Most Blessed Sacrament.”^[55] Lúcia also said that she heard Mary ask for these words to be added to the Rosary after the Gloria Patri prayer: “O my Jesus, pardon us, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need.”^[56]

In the tradition of Marian visitations, the “conversion of sinners” is not necessarily religious conversion to the Roman Catholic Church, for that would be the “conversion of heretics or apostates who are ‘outside the church and alien to the Christian Faith’ according to Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical on the Unity of the Church, Satis Cognitum”. Conversion of sinners refers to general repentance and attempt to amend one’s life according to the teachings of Jesus for those True Catholics who do profess the faith truly, but are fallen into sins. Lúcia wrote that she and her cousins defined “sinners” not as non-Catholics but as those who had fallen away from the church or, more specifically, willfully indulged in sinful activity, particularly “sins of the flesh”^[57] and “acts of injustice and a lack of charity towards the poor, widows and orphans, the ignorant and the helpless” which she said were even worse than sins of impurity.

Pilgrimage

An estimated 70,000 people assembled to witness the last of the promised appearances of the Lady in the Cova da Iria on October 13, 1917. The widely reported miracle of the sun was a factor that led to Fátima quickly becoming a major centre of pilgrimage. Two million pilgrims visited the site in the decade following the events of 1917.^[59] A small chapel – the Capelinha - was built by local people on the site of the apparitions. The construction was neither encouraged nor hindered by the Catholic Church authorities. On May 13, 1920, pilgrims defied government troops to install a statue of the Virgin Mary in the chapel,^[60] and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was first officially celebrated there in January 1924. A hostel for the sick was begun in that year. In 1927 the first rector of the sanctuary was appointed and a set of Stations of the Crosswere erected on the mountain road. The foundation stone for the present basilica was laid the next year.^[61]

1930 was the year both of official church recognition of the apparition events as “worthy of belief” and the granting of a papal indulgence to pilgrims visiting Fátima. In 1935 the bodies of the visionaries Jacinta and Francisco were reinterred in the basilica. The coronation of the statue of Our Lady of Fátima there in 1946 drew such large crowds that the entrance to the site had to be barred.^[62]

Today pilgrimage to the site goes on all year round and additional chapels, hospitals and other facilities have been constructed. The principal pilgrimage festivals take place on the thirteenth day of each month, from May to October, on the anniversaries of the original appearances. The largest crowds gather on 13 May and 13 October, when up to a million pilgrims have attended to pray and witness processions of the statue of Our Lady of Fátima, both during the day and by the light of tens of thousands of candles at night.

On site remains today the route of the Roman road of Carreirancha. This was the path that led Nuno Alvares Pereira to Military Camp on the eve of the Battle of Aljubarrota on 14 August 1385. The road is 100 meters long and four meters at its widest point, and was built between centuries BC and AD.

It is a fortress located on the southern slopes, above the cliffs, between the fishing port in the east, and the Cave of Furninha west.

It is assumed that the origin of the place name derives from Peniche Phoenix, name of an ancient village on the island of Crete, whose geographical setting was similar to the primitive island of Peniche, which became peninsula. At its end lies the Cape Carvoeiro. The village is about eight meters above sea level, occupying nowadays one peninsular area 2,750 meters long from west to east.

At the time of independence from Portugal, the island of Peniche stood about a hundred steps from the mainland, near the mouth of the São Domingos river. The action of ocean currents and winds, over the centuries, led to the silting of that river, from the sands to form progressively a string of dunes, consolidating, joined the island to the mainland of Peniche, making disappear Port of Atouguia.

The ancient site of Ribeira d’Atouguia at the mouth of the river, was one of the most important Portuguese ports of the Middle Ages, privileged access point to the country’s central locations (Lisbon, Obidos, Torres Vedras, Santarém and Leiria), being implicadada important episodes in the history of Portugal. Being a constant target of attacks of English privateers, French and Barbary Pirates, King Manuel I of Portugal (1495-1521) instructed the Atouguia Earl of drawing up a plan for the defense of that stretch of coast, which was presented to her successor, John III of Portugal (1521-1557). Work began the construction in 1557, the so-called castle of the town, bastion structure, under the supervision of D. Luis de Ataide, completed around 1570, to the reign of King Sebastian of time (1557-1578). During the Philippine Dynasty, it was in Peniche that British troops, courtesy of Elizabeth I of England, under the command of Antonio I of Portugal, began their march on Lisbon (July 1589), in attempting to restore Portuguese sovereignty.

The fishing village was elevated to town (1609), having been made some repairs on their walls.

Bordallo Pinheiro Factory of Artistic Earthenware has been, for over a century, responsible for the design of a gallery of utilitarian and decorative ceramic pieces that have become a worldwide artistic reference.

Description of the Company

Bordallo Pinheiro Factory of Artistic Earthenware was created with the purpose of revitalizing the traditional arts of ceramics, crossing them with the modernity of many styles that foretell the future, but, above all, with the originality of its creator, Rafael Bordallo Pinheiro. Thus was born the artistic production of pieces that are, until today, inseparable from our imagination and cultural references of a universal nature.

By still using most of the centuries-old techniques in the reproduction of models, Bordallo Pinheiro Factory of Artistic Earthenware continues to recover an irreplaceable legacy. At the same time, and animated by the same pioneering spirit, it is an innovative company, creating contemporary products and enhancing its prestige in the various markets where the brand is present.

Bordallo Pinheiro operates in a factory located in Caldas da Rainha, where the company’s headquarters are located, and has an office in Lisbon.

He was a disciple of his father, the painter Manuel Maria Bordalo Pinheiro. His mother was D. Maria Augusta do Ó Carvalho Prostes and his brother the painterColumbano. He started publishing illustrations and caricatures in humoristic magazines such as A Berlinda and O Calcanhar de Aquiles, frequently demonstrating a sarcastic humour with a political or social message.

In 1875 he travelled to Brazil to work as an illustrator and cartoonist for the publication Mosquito (and later,another publication called O Besouro), which was also employing the Italian/Brazilian illustrator Angelo Agostini, until then the unrivaled cartooning authority of Brazil. Pinheiro eventually became editor of other humorous, politically critical magazines. His fame as a caricaturist led the Illustrated London News to become one of his collaborators.

In 1875, Bordalo Pinheiro created the cartoon character Zé Povinho (literal translation: Joe Little People), a Portuguese everyman, portrayed as a poor peasant. Zé Povinho became, and still is, as an iconic symbol, the most popular character in Portugal.

In Zé Povinho, as in his other works, Bordalo Pinheiro’s drawing style was innovative and influential, making extensive use of onomatopoeia, graphical signs (such as those to used represent movement), strong images (the manguito), and his unique style of mixing punctuation marks, such as brackets, with drawing.

In 1885, he founded a ceramics factory in Caldas da Rainha, where he created many of the pottery designs for which this city is known. The factory is still in business.

The Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/bordallopinheiro.official

The Museum in Lisbon - http://museubordalopinheiro.cm-lisboa.pt/

Since July 26, 2013, it is installed on the ground floor of the building of the Chess Museum.

The Figueiró dos Vinhos Tourist Office of Wines started to work on “Cocoon of Malhoa” following the works of Recovery and Rehabilitation of that property classified as municipal interest.

Thus, Figueiró Wine now has a place with undeniable able to receive visitors and tourists in the area adjacent to the new Museum and Arts Center, allowing a clear strengthening of Cultural Tourism.

It stands in a dominant position on the beach of Nazaré, famous and traditional fishing spot, sanctuary and resort on the Portuguese coast.

The Fort of Saint Michael the Archangel is a maritime fortification in Mannerist style, has irregular organic plant (adapted to the rocky promontory on which is based), with a bastion at each vertex. The walls in irregulasr stone set with sing at the corners, buttresses present, housing eight premises that met the Headquarters Troop functions, Command House, Storeroom and Warehouses. On the second floor, located in the Plaza de Armas.

Surmounting the monumental gate, under a lintel, there is an image in bas-relief of St. Michael the Archangel, patron of the fort, and an inscription: “El Rey Dom Joam the Room – 1644″, both currently quite worn.

In the year 1901 or 1902, began a process for the expropriation of the fort, and then proceeded to the partial reconstruction of a damaged stronghold for him install the Lighthouse of Nazareth (1903), active to this day, with a range bright fifteen nautical miles, completed by a warning beep on days of dense fog.

The early defense of the place dates back to the reign of King Sebastian (1557-1578), who ruled there erect a fortification to defend the fishing village on the Mount of Flint (1577), whose port was drained by the wood of Pine d’El Rey (Pinhal de Leiria) and whose shipyards had already economically important figure at the time.

These works, however, only gain momentum during the Philippine Dynasty when King Philip II (1598-1621), around the year 1600, determined to rebuild the first fortress under the late military engineer and architect Giovanni Vicenzo plant Casale. Still under construction, a Dutch privateer entered the port of Flint and apresou a Portuguese vessel with pine wood and a ship load of Biscay carrying iron, wine and weapons (1611).

In need of repair in the early seventeenth century, the time of the War of Restoration of Portugal’s independence the Crown determined its modernization and expansion (1644), when it acquired its current conformation.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, in 1903, a lighthouse was installed in its facilities, with the help of the navigation function that stretch of coastline.

Between 1907 and 1941 were registered restoration work on the monument.

Although currently well preserved, the structure is under threat of collapse due to the advanced erosion that undermines the side of the sea.

The town consists of three neighbourhoods: Praia (along the beach), Sítio (an old village, on top of a cliff) and Pederneira (another old village, on a hilltop). Praia and Sítio are linked by the Nazaré Funicular, a funicular railway.

The earliest settlements were in Pederneira and in Sítio, above the beach. They provided the inhabitants with refuge against raids by Viking, later French, English and Dutch pirates, that lasted until as late as the beginning of the 19th century.

According to the Legend of Nazaré, the town derives its name from a small wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, a Black Madonna, brought by a monk in the 4th century from Nazareth, Holy Land, to a monastery near the city of Mérida, Spain. The statue was brought to its current place in 711 by another monk, Romano, accompanied by Roderic, the last Visigoth king of today’s Portugal. After their arrival at the seaside they decided to become hermits. The monk lived and died in a small natural grotto, on top of a cliff above the sea. After his death and according to the monk’s wishes, the king buried him in the grotto. Roderic left the statue of the Black Madonna in the grotto on an altar.

The first church in Sítio was built over the grotto to commemorate a miraculous intervention in 1182 by the Virgin Mary, which saved the life of the 12th-century Portuguese knight Dom Fuas Roupinho (possibly a templar) while he was hunting deer one morning in a dense fog. This episode is usually referred to as the Legend of Nazaré. In memory of the miracle he had a chapel (Capela da Memória) built over the small grotto, where the miraculous statue had been left by king Roderic after the monk’s death. Beside the chapel, on a rocky outcrop 110 meters above the Atlantic, one can still see the mark made in the rock by one of the hooves of Dom Fuas’ horse. This Church of Nazareth, high on the rocky outcrop over Pederneira bay, was noted as a landmark in sailors’ manuals.

In 1377, King Fernando I of Portugal founded a new more spacious church which was totally transformed between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Church of Nossa Senhora da Nazaré is a rich baroque building, with splendid tiles on its interior. Behind and above the main altar visitors can see and venerate the miraculous statue of our Lady of Nazaré.

Nazaré has become a popular tourist attraction, advertising itself internationally as a picturesque seaside village. Located on the Atlantic coast, it has long sandy beaches (considered by some to be among the best beaches in Portugal), with lots of tourists in the summer. The town used to be known for its traditional costumes worn by the fishermen and their wives who wore a traditional headscarf and embroidered aprons over seven flannel skirts in different colours. These dresses can still occasionally be seen.

It is the only beach of the island suitable for bathing, accessible and sand. It is unsupervised. It has length about 40 meters.

19th century plan of theForte of the Berlengas

King Manuel of Portugal ordered the construction of a fortress on Berlenga Grande in 1502, which was immediately rectified under the reign of King Sebastian of Portugal. The fort, was constructed from the remains of a pre-existing monastery (the Monastery of the Misericórdia da Berlenga) which had previously been abandoned. Hieronymite monks had in the early 16th century, decided that the Berlengas were well situated to provide aid for seafearing people in need of shelter.The islands isolation also provided ideal conditions for the monks to live in austerity through solitude and silence, assiduous prayer and healthy penance. But, the monks became victims of frequent attacks by Algerian, Moroccan, English, and French pirates and privateers. Further, violent weather often cut-off communication to the mainland, which was especially distressing during pirate incursions, as result, the Monastery was abandoned.

It was only during the middle of 17th century that construction began, under the administration of John IV of Portugal, after the visit of João Rodrigues de Sá to the island, who, accompanied by a military engineer determined the plan to follow in its construction (in 1651). Originally during the Portuguese Restoration War, the Counsel of War had determined that a better coastal defense was needed, and had ordered the demolition of the monastery ruins to build the fort.^[2] By 1666 construction of the fort had proceed under the direction of engineer Mateus do Couto, for which the final design was creditted. That year the Fort of the Berlenga was instrumental in stopping the attack by a Spanish fleet, which was sent to kidnap Queen Maria Francisca of Savoy, on her arrival in Portugal, when she was to married to King Afonso VI of Portugal. After this attack, the King ordered the repair of the fortress, increasing the firepower of its defenses. Following its destruction by Spanish corsairs in 1666, it was finally completed in 1678 under the command of General Marquess da Fronteira (from an inscription over a gate).

During the French invasion of the peninsula, the outpost served as a base for British troops, although it was the French later who plundered it.^[3] In 1821, João VI of Portugal ordered a remodelling of the fort that included the reconstruction of the chapel, which had been burned down during the French assault.^[2][3] The fort was also used during the Liberal Wars, serving as a forward base for troops loyal to Pedro IV of Portugal, to attack the fortress of Peniche (then occupied by Miguelist forces). Fourteen years later its armaments were removed, beginning a gradual decline in the fort’s state.

In 1953, the fort was repaired and remodelled as part of an attempt to adapt the structure into an inn (Portuguese: pousada).

The DGEMN Direcção-Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais (Directorate-General of Buildings and National Monuments) became involved after 1981 in the restoration of the structure, culminating in projects between 1986 and 1987 to consolidate the fortification and make it secure for visitors. The fortress is open to the public during the summer, with guides reserved through the Casa Abrigo.

The fort is located in the waters off the southeastern coast of Berlenga Grande, on a small islet connected to the island by a causeway/arch-bridge and anchorage to the north.

The structure is irregular octagon, longer from north to south, with a similarly irregular rectangular structure on this base covered in paved terraces, with a slight incline. The two-storey walls serve as both defense and narrow enclosed corridors that circuit its perimeter, broken by several arched windows on the northern and western facades. Meanwhile, the southern and eastern facades are broken by an irregular curtain of canon embrasures.

The structures on the exterior wall functioned as the casemates, while the central body functioned as the armory.