PORTUGAL: SLEEPING IN FATIMA AND A TRIP TO ESTREMOZ

  July 1-2, 2022

After a long day of sightseeing, we were ready to dump our stuff at our hotel, grab a bite to eat, and go to bed. The only problem was that we couldn't find our hotel, the SDivine Fatima Hotel. Our GPS placed in in the center of a roundabout. We had to call the hotel twice for directions. We finally found it just off the roundabout on one of the many exits, but set back from the road with no visible signage.

We were still in the city of Fátima, and it was fun to see this azulejo depiction of the Visitation of Our Lady of the Rosary to the three shepherd children.

After unloading our luggage, we set out on foot to find something to eat. The only thing we found open was a butcher shop that made sandwiches and "toasts," or grilled sandwiches (kind of like paninis). The guy behind the counter spoke as much English as I spoke Portuguese, so we had a pretty funny pantomime exchange. He gave us some meat and cheese samples to try, and we pointed at what we wanted. When Bob asked for mayonnaise for his sandwich, the butcher was horrififed, basically refusing. The sandwiches were good, at least my toastsed one with melted cheese oozing out the sides was!

We also shared some very good sausage and olives.

The next day we got off to an early start because we planned to cover a significant distance.

PORTUGAL: SANCTUARY OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA

 July 1, 2022

Our final destination of the day was our third pilgrimage site of the trip (the first two being Santiago de Compostela and Bom Jesus Cathedral), The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima.

The story is that in 1917, Mary the Mother of Jesus appeared to three shepherd children--Francisco and Jacinta Marto and their cousin Lúcia--in a field in Fátima, Portugal. Over a period of five months, the children experienced six visitations. They told others that they were asked by the Virgin to say the rosary and were told three "secrets" regarding events that were to occur. In 1930, the Catholic Church recognized the visions as "worthy of belief" and granted a papal indulgence to pilgrims to the site. The site quickly became an important pilgrimage destination, and it now receives as many as six million pilgrims a year. 

The huge open courtyard of the shrine is twice as large as St. Peter's in Rome, and it reminded us a lot of the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City that we visited in 2018. The Shrine of Fátima, built near the place where the children saw Mary, is one of the largest Marian shrines in the world.

There are two minor basilicas on the property, and we began our visit in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, which has a 213-foot-tall tower topped with a 15,000-pound bronze crown and a cross.

PORTUGAL: BOM JESUS DO MONTE BASILICA

 June 30, 2022

We got on the road around noon for our two-hour drive back to Portugal and our next destination outside Braga, another pilgrimage site, Bom Jesus do Monte, or "Good Jesus of the Mountain." (We kept irreverently calling the place "Bomb Jesus" and giggling.)

We had eaten an extensive and delicious breakfast buffet in our hotel, so we weren't ready for lunch, but we did pick up some nutritious snacks for the drive. I didn't know Magnum made anything but ice cream bars! What a wonderful surprise! And the Sumol Laranja drink on the right tastes just like one of my favorites: Orangina.

We had zero interference crossing the border into Portugal. Everything we had read online about tight Covid restrictions in Portugal were either out-of-date or overblown.

Bom Jesus do Monte turned out to be one of my favorite churches in Portugal, in spite of the fact that the road to the church is a series of hairpin turns up a very steep mountain.

Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, the extensive property (64 acres) is stunning. The UNESCO document notes that "the landscape evokes Christian Jerusalem, recreating a sacred mount crowned with a church. . . . [It] illustrates a European tradition of creating Sacri Monti (sacred mountains), promoted by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent in the 16th century." The rest of the UNESCO description is one of the most lavish documents of praise I have read on their site, and I wonder what took them so long to name Bom Jesus a World Heritage Site. 

Many churches have existed here, beginning in the 14th century, but the current  one was started in 1784 and consecrated in 1834. A zig-zagging series of 577 steps leading from the town of Braga up the mountain to the basilica were built between 1723 and 1837, and it is these stairs and accompanying artwork and landscaping that make the basilica such a special and unique place, which is why over 1.2 million people visit it every year.

SPAIN: THE CATHEDRAL OF SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA AND THE CATHEDRAL MUSEUM

 June 29-30, 2022

As noted in the previous post, the current Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela was built in Romanesque style in the 13th century, with Gothic and Baroque additions in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. It is a massive structure, and no doubt gets its notoriety from being the reputed burial spot of St. James (aka Santiago) the Greater, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. However, it is a magnificent edifice of its own accord.

By the way, the only other churches in the world built over the tomb of an apostle are St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, St. Thomas Cathedral Basilica in Chennai, India, and the Basilica of St. John in Izmir, Turkey.

A sign of the importance of this cathedral is that it was visited THREE TIMES in a span of 28 years by two different popes--Pope John Paul II in 1982 and 1989 and Pope Benedict in 2010.

The interior of this cathedral is about 310 feet long, has a transept that measures 206 feet, and stands 72 feet high, making it the tallest building in Europe when it was built. Today it is still the largest Romanesque cathedral in Spain. At first glance it looks rather austere.

But then you see the main altar, and the closer you get, the more opulent it is.

PORTUGAL TO SPAIN: SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA - THE CATHEDRAL PLAZA AND THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO

 June 29-30, 2022

We left Porto around 9:00 AM and headed north to the Spanish border and Santiago de Compostela on the other side, a 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 hour drive.  The scenery was really stunning--hills became mountains, and forests and farmlands were dotted with homes and towns.

I made Bob stop so I could photograph the profusion of colorful wild flowers. I also liked the sign for those on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail recommending the use of reflecting material: "See and be seen."

PORTUGAL: PORTO, PART II - CATHEDRAL, CLERIGOS CHURCH AND BELLTOWER, AND A LUNCH DETOUR

 June 28, 2022

The Portuguese word Sé is used to mean "cathedral" or a diocese with a bishop. Typically, the word Sé is reserved for the main or ruling church of the community. 

We could see the Romanesque Sé do Porto, located on a hill in the middle of the historical city center, from all over town. 

On our way there, we passed the Fountain of Mouzinho da Silveira, built in 1875 as a monument to a Portuguese statesman who died in 1849. This landmark was dismantled in 1920 to make room for two businesses. In 1966, however, the businesses were gone and the fountain was reconstructed after a model of the original one. I'll bet it is beautiful when it has water in it (if it ever does).

Did you notice the cool reflection on the vehicle in the lower left corner of the photo above?