Lapa Sanctuary - Sernancelhe
About 44 minutes by car is the Sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Lapa, a religious place to visit and to know. Stay at our Hotel Palace Hotel & Spa Asturias and enjoy the points of interest around us.
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About the Lapa Sanctuary
The Sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Lapa is located in the hills of the same name, in the parish of Quintela, municipality of Sernancelhe, diocese of Lamego, district of Viseu.
Legend has it that, in 1498, a 12-year-old shepherdess, named Joana, changes her birth, introducing herself between the cracks in the rocks surmounted by the great limpet, there she found a beautiful image of the Virgin, which there would have been hidden there more than five hundred years for religious women fleeing persecution.
The devotion and all the affection that the girl dedicated to the image, earned her a special protection from the Virgin who miraculously granted her the gift of speech.
The miracle quickly spread, creating a growing influx of pilgrims, never interrupted until today.
The first devotees prepared a cave under the limestone, where they enthroned the image, building a small chapel beside it.
In 1576, Lapa was entrusted to the Fathers of the Companhia de Jesus, based at the College of Coimbra.
These then built the current Sanctuary, housing the cliff inside.
In 1685, construction began on the “Colégio da Lapa”, adjacent to the Sanctuary.
From here, devotion to the most varied points of the country and the world came, reaching India and Brazil. This expansion was facilitated by the missionary activity of the same Jesuit Fathers, to whom this Shrine was entrusted.
Senhora da Lapa, in Portugal and Santiago de Compostela, in Spain, were once the two most important sanctuaries in the Iberian Peninsula.
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