Chapel of the Apparitions

The Chapel of the Apparitions (Portuguese: Capelinha das Aparições) is a small chapel located in Cova da Iria that was constructed in the 1920s to mark the exact location where three little shepherd children reported having received the famous apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal.

The chapel was built in response to the request of Our Lady of the Rosary: "I want you to make a chapel here in my honor". The chapel was built on the exact spot of the apparitions in Fatima in 1917. From April 28 to 15 of June 1919, the task of constructing the chapel was performed by a mason by the name of Joaquim Barbeiro from the village of Santa Catarina da Serra. On the 13th of October, 1921 the celebration of the Mass was officially allowed for the first time next to the Chapel.

In 1919, the construction of the little chapel started with the authorization of Lucia’s mother and the discreet acquiescence of the parish priest of Fatima, who could not commit himself until the Religious Authority made a pronouncement on the matter.

On March 6, 1922, anticlerical adversaries of the Church put a powerful bomb inside the original Fatima chapel at Cova da Iria, that blew up the chapel. In December of 1922, reconstruction of the chapel was restarted. On October 23, 1922, as reported by the daily Diário de Notícias, a band of liberals from Vila Nova de Ourém went to Cova da Iria during the night and cut down the tree of the apparitions. When Lucia heard about it she ran to the location and, much to her joy, she saw they had cut down the wrong tree, one which was close to the holm oak on which Our Lady had landed.

The chapel is the most important site of the whole Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima and it is visited at least by 5 million pilgrims every year.

Chapel of the Apparitions informative plaque.

Chapel of the Apparitions with Our Lady's image.

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Wikipedia