The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lapa is a famous Roman Catholic Marian shrine

Shrines to the Virgin Mary

In the culture and practice of some Christian Churches - mainly, but not solely, the Roman Catholic Church - a Shrine to the Virgin Mary is a shrine marking an apparition or other miracle ascribed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or a site on which is centered a historically strong Marian devotion...

 in the parish of Quintela

Quintela

Quintela is a Portuguese parish in the municipality of Sernancelhe. The population in 2001 is 332, its density is 26/km² and the area is 12.77 km²....

, Sernancelhe Municipality, in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

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(1498) The story tells of a dumb shepherd girl, Joana, who found a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic)

Roman Catholic veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary is based on Holy Scripture: In the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a virgin. The mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God through Mary thus signifies her honour as Mother of God...

 (probably from 997) on a great boulder and took it home. Irritated, her mother threw it on the fire, at which moment the child miraculously spoke: "Don't burn it," cried Joana. "It is the Lady of Lapa!"

The chapel was built to enshrine the boulder, and the image, now with a slightly scorched face, looks down from an ornamental recess.
The space below her niche is packed with images and offerings left by pilgrims

Pilgrims

Pilgrims , or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States...

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One of this offerings is a crocodile and is in the east wing of this church.