Aparecida is the religious heart of Brazil. In 1717 fishermen on the Rio Paraíba pulled a small clay statue of the Virgin from their nets, and the image of Nossa Senhora Aparecida became the country's patron saint. The town that grew up around her, halfway between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on the Via Dutra, receives millions of pilgrims a year.
The statue is kept in the Basílica of Nossa Senhora Aparecida, a vast brick church built from the 1950s onward that is among the largest Catholic churches in the world, able to hold tens of thousands of people. Its interior is covered with modern tile and mosaic work. A cable car and a footbridge link it to the old basilica on the hill above, and the Sala das Promessas displays thousands of objects left by pilgrims in thanks for prayers answered — photographs, casts, wedding dresses, football shirts.
Visit on an ordinary weekday for a manageable experience. On 12 October, the saint's feast day and a national holiday, the town is overwhelmed.