Aparecida Basilica

The story is specific: in 1717 three fishermen on the Paraiba do Sul, having caught nothing, pulled up first the body and then the head of a small terracotta figure of the Virgin, and afterwards filled their nets. The statue, dark and about forty centimetres tall, became the focus of a devotion that grew steadily through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and Our Lady of Aparecida was declared patroness of Brazil in 1930. The present basilica, begun in 1955 and consecrated by John Paul II in 1980, is enormous - a Greek cross plan with four naves under a central dome, capable of holding tens of thousands, and it receives many millions of pilgrims a year, which makes it among the largest Marian shrines anywhere by both capacity and attendance.

What you actually see

• The 1717 statue - a dark terracotta figure about forty centimetres tall.
• A four-nave Greek cross - tens of thousands under one dome.
• Millions of pilgrims a year - among the most visited Marian shrines anywhere.
• A separate old basilica - the earlier eighteenth-century church nearby.

When to go

All year; 12 October is the feast and the busiest day by a wide margin. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The building is modern and functional rather than beautiful, and the commercial strip of religious shops around it is extensive. On the feast day and at weekends it is extremely crowded. The statue itself is small and viewed from a moving queue.

Nearby

Guaratingueta is next along the valley; Sao Paulo and Rio are at either end of the Dutra.