3 Best Sights in Fátima, Estremadura and the Ribatejo

One of the largest Catholic churches in the world, seating some 8,500 worshipers, the Holy Trinity was consecrated in 2007 and raised to the state of basilica in 2012. Although it won prizes for engineering rather than architecture, its ample, curved form—designed by Greek architect Alexandros Tombazis—offers a pleasing contrast to its rather run-of-the-mill 1920s predecessor. Much of the iconography, including on the lavish main doors, was inspired by Byzantine and Orthodox motifs, and was produced by artists from Portugal and seven other countries. The Tall Cross crucifix outside the church is by the German artist Robert Schad.

At the head of the shrine's huge esplanade is the towering neoclassical basilica built in the late 1920s, flanked on either side by a semicircular peristyle. Inside you will find the tombs of all three of the "little shepherds" who reported seeing the Virgin Mary.

This tiny chapel—now ringed by benches and covered by a much larger modern canopy—was built in 1920 on the site where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared. A plinth with a statue of the Virgin marks the exact spot. Gifts, mostly wax reproductions of body parts, are burned nearby as offerings to the Virgin in the hope of achieving a miraculous cure.