Tourist Attraction in Cruz Alta:
Santuário Diocesano Nossa Senhora de Fátima

The Monument of Our Lady of Fatima, popularly known as "Santinha", is located in the city of Cruz Alta (RS), Brazil. Standing on a 31-meter high pedestal. Inaugurated in October 1952. The image of the Santa, existing in the chapel of the monument, came from Portugal, as well as an ampule with water, existing in the miniature of the Basilica of Fatima. The site is the final destination of the Great Pilgrimage Route of Fatima for the more than 120 thousand pilgrims who participate every year of this great event in October. The Monument Park has been considerably enlarged and today we can already see the result of a lot of joint effort of the Monument Commission and the Organizing Committees of the Pilgrimage. The environment is more welcoming and more pleasant for visitors who, in large numbers, visit the place. Every Sunday at 4:00 p.m., a Mass is celebrated at the shrine and on the 13th of each month 2 Masses are being celebrated, the first being held at 9:00 am and the second at 5:00 p.m., on this occasion the faithful receive the individual blessing and also personal objects are blessed. Many people go to the site every day to pray, pay promises, light candles and fetch water. On Sundays the number of people who come to the place is great. In 2016, Pope Francisco elevated the monument to "Diocesan Shrine Our Lady of Fatima". The "Santinha" as it is affectionately called Our Lady of Fatima by the people, is part of the history of Cruz Alta and, mainly, it is part of the walk of the Church of all this region. Father Pedro Luis Bottari devised the Monument in honor of Our Lady of Fatima as a place of prayer and penance in 1948. Father Pedro used all possible means in the municipality to stimulate and encourage devotion to Our Lady, especially through prayer of the third in family, widely publicized in radio programs of the time. He mobilized the whole community to make the Monument a reality. It was he who stimulated, mobilized the means of communication around this true passion that fed: devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. Its construction began in 1950 on the land donated by Mr. Henrique Scarpelini. The engineer Dr. Arno Glitz, together with the constructor Assunção Severo da Silva, who built the work. The miniature of the Sanctuary of Fatima in Portugal and the water source were designed by Dr. Ítalo de Souza Noechi and built by Dante De Vit. The inauguration of the Monument was on October 12, 1952. The population of Cruz Alta, on that day, doubled. It was an event never seen in the area. More than 40,000 people were present at the inauguration. The image of Our Lady of Fatima, which during the year is in the sanctuary and is conducted in the Romaria, was donated by the Government of Portugal, through the intermediary of the Portuguese Ambassador in Brazil, Mr. Antonio Farias. At the time the image was exposed in Porto Alegre, in the House of Portugal, in a showcase donated by it. The image of Fatima measures six meters high, and was carved by the Berlin artist Alfredo Staeger, on a monument thirty-one meters high, the largest in the state.

Attractions in Cruz Alta