Places of memory and culture

Places of memory and culture
 

Museum of the Shrine of Fatima

The Museum of the Shrine of Fatima was created by Mg. José Alves Correia da Silva, through a letter Museum-Library of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima in order to preserve the “the remains of a past that starts (started) to be distant" and to gather a collection of historical, artistic and ethnographic items that could protect the memory of the testimonies of international pilgrimages of the Pilgrim Virgin statue and the relics related to the history of the apparitions and their protagonists. Intuiting what were the necessities of a museum, the letter explains about the concepts of inventory, exhibition and storage procedure.

Although it has never functioned in an independent building, the Museum of the Shrine always sought to fulfill the assignments that modern museology requires from museological institutions: inventory work, study of collections, conservation, exhibition and diffusion. Indeed, in a more empirical way or more systematical, the Shrine has made efforts to accomplish this purpose, so that the pilgrims can contact with some of the foundations which are at the basis of the message of Fatima and with some of the cultural productions that emanate from it.

Permanent Exhibition Fatima Light and Peace

The permanent exhibition Fatima Light and Peace had opened to the public on August 2002 and is located in the Rectory of the Shrine of Fatima within the architectural complex of the Retreat House of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

In Fatima Light and Peace, part of the inventory of the Museum of the Shrine is permanently exhibited. The museological route, created by Maria Teresa Gomes Ferreira, and the museology, designed by Cruz de Carvalho, aim to frame the visitor at the core of the message of Fatima, by placing him before the interpellation elaborated as a path: "from war to peace," "from darkness to light."

Among the musealized objects, one can highlights, from the Jewelry Collection, the precious crown of Our Lady of Fatima, where there is the bullet that hit John Paul II, and several liturgical vessels. The oldest object of the exhibition belongs to the Sculpture Collection: an Indo-Portuguese Christ dating from the 17th century. From the Textile Collection, several vestments are exposed which are related to the pilgrimages of the popes to the Shrine of Fatima, other elements from regional clothing or from rites of religious passage, and from testimony of social or professional identity. What really reflects the devotion of pilgrims to Our Lady is the Jewelry collection comprising pieces of personal adornment, mostly gold. Many other objects are there, as the traditional 'ex-votos' such as photographs, wax pieces, candles, miniatures of boats, etc.

House Museum of Aljustrel

The House Museum of Aljustrel is located next to Lucia’s birth house, in that small village called Aljustrel, about 2 kilometers away from the Shrine of Fatima. This first permanent Museological Centre of the Shrine was inaugurated on August 19, 1992, and is located in the house once owned by Maria Rosa, baptism godmother of Lucia. It is divided in four sections which allow us to understand the daily life back to the period of time of the apparitions. This conception was produced by Joaquim Roque Abrantes, Manuel Serafim Pinto and Maria Palmira Carvalho, who have taken as a starting point to accomplish such a task the entire inventory gathered years before by Francisco Pereira de Oliveira.

Jacinta and Francisco’s House

It was in this house, located at 2 kilometers away from the Shrine of Fatima, in the village of Aljustrel, that Blessed Francisco and Jacinta were born, the two youngest children of the family Marto.

This house is 200 meters away from Lucia’s. It was acquired by the Shrine in November 1996, and later rebuilt.

Lucia’s House

The house where Lucia de Jesus, the youngest of six children, was born and lived is located in Aljustrel, about 2 kilometers away from the Shrine of Fatima. The first interrogatories to the seers took place in this house. In the backyard, one can still see the fig trees under the shade of which the three little shepherds played and where they hid when sought by pilgrims or curious.

 In 1981, Sister Lucia donated the house to the Shrine; it only took possession of it in 1986. The area surrounding the house was arranged and was built a new information office, inaugurated on August 13, 1994.