Our Lady of Peneda

The shrine of the mountain · Arches of Valdevez

In the southernmost part of the National Park of Peneda- Gerês, at the foot of a large rock and by the waterfalls of the river, the sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Peneda rises, to which the pilgrims go up a long step flanked with chapels. Some call it "the Portuguese Lourdes."

Origin and history

The devotion is linked to the legend of Our Lady of the Snow: according to tradition, the Virgin appeared in the 13th century to a pasture, first in the form of a white dove (August 5, 1220), asking for a sanctuary to be built; a sick woman, Domingas Gregório, would have regained health before the image. This whole story is transmitted as a pious legend.

There was a previous medieval hermitage. The present great complex was built between the end of the 18th and the third quarter of the 19th century: the church was concluded around 1875, and throughout the 19th century the steps of the virtues (1854), the courtyards and the twenty chapels with scenes of Christ's life were built, setting up an ascending devotional itinerary in the middle of the mountain. It is one of the main Marian shrines in northern Portugal.

The appeal "Portuguese Lourdes" is popular and descriptive, not official.