<p class="title_brown"><strong>Chapel of the Apparitions </strong></p>

<p class="subtitle_brown">Prayer Area</p>

<p class="normal_text"><br />
The chapel of the Apparitions is the &quot;heart&quot;&nbsp;of the Shrine of Fatima. It was in the place of the Chapel that our Lady talked to the little shepherds. Out of the six apparitions of the Virgin Mary, five of them happened in this place ? May, June, July, September and October ? where, by the Lady?s indication, a chapel in her honour was to be constructed. Built between&nbsp;April 28th and June 15th,&nbsp;1919, it was later blessed, having Mass been celebrated there for the first time on&nbsp;October 13th, 1921. Dynamited in the morning of March 6th, 1922, it was restored and reopened on January 13th,&nbsp;1923.</p>

<p class="normal_text">Though it was subjected to minor changes, the little Chapel of the Apparitions maintains the original traits, which are characteristic of a popular hermitage. The current porch was inaugurated during the first visit of John Paul II to the Shrine of Fatima, on the 12th and 13th of May 1982.</p>

<p class="normal_text">The sculpture of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima venerated in the Chapel of the Apparitions was offered in 1920 by Gilberto Fernandes dos Santos, from Torres Novas, being blessed on May 13th, of that year, in the Parish Church of Fatima, and brought to the Chapel one month later. It was solemnly crowned on the May 13th, 1946 by Cardinal Aloisi Masella, pontifical legate.</p>

<p class="normal_text">The precious crown that the image bears only on the days of great pilgrimages was offered by the women of Portugal, on October 13th,&nbsp;1942. This is made of gold, weighs 1,2 kilograms and contains 313 pearls and 2679 precious stones. It?s a unique example and of high artistic and estimated value. In 1989, the bullet extracted from the body of John Paul II after the attack in Rome on&nbsp;May 13th, 1981, and offered by him to the Shrine on March 26, 1984, was incrusted to the crown.</p>

<p class="normal_text">A work of Jos&eacute; Ferreira Thedim, the sculpture is made of wood (cedar wood from Brazil) and measures 104 centimetres. The plinth where the statue of Our Lady lies marks the site where the small holm oak on which the Lady of the Rosary appeared used to be.</p>
