Our campsite was just a 5 minute walk from Santuario de Nossa Senhora dos Remedios the Shrine of Our Lady of the Remedies).
A religious site had occupied this “mountain top” site (a big hill really, but they insist on calling it a mountain!) since the 14th century, but the present day shrine was constructed between 1760 and 1905.
Many websites talk about the shrine and the 686 steps leading up to it, constructed in a baroque fashion – but nowhere (not even Wikepedia) tells us what miraculous remedies were witnessed, or when!
However we can testify that this is a well visited place. We arrived on foot from our campsite at 8.40am. We inspected the top of the stairs and we went in the shrine, taking a few silent moments of reflection. It was a peaceful and most lovely place. We had only seen a solitary nun crossing the front of the shrine at this point.
Another nun arrived to open the shop at 9.05am. She was 5 minutes late but wore a lovely smile so we didn’t scold her. But as we left the shop at 9.15am the first two of the day’s coaches had arrived and were spewing out pilgrims by the dozen!
By the time we drove out of Lamego at around 10.30 (having driven into town to inspect the lower reaches of the stairway) we had seen over a dozen coaches, and no doubt there had been many more as we prepared for the day back at the campsite.
3 thoughts on “Portugal trip – Part 3”
Do keep blogs coming xx
I have just upgraded my phone account with more data so I can catch up – wifi is patchy around here x
Love all the info and photos. What a wonderful year you are having. Xx