Aparecida

Aparecida is a city in the Vale do Paraíba region, in São Paulo state. It is a major Catholic pilgrimage site that gets more than 10 million visitors per year, mostly coming to visit the Basílica de Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the second largest Catholic temple in the World.

Understand
In 1717, fishers from Guaratinguetá found a broken terracotta statue of the Virgin Mary at the Paraíba river (likely sculpted in the 17th century). Many local miracles have been attributed to the statue, which in 1734, has been placed in a chapel. The chapel became too small for the amount of visitors that it received, and the construction of a larger church started in 1834.

The village around the chapel was given the name Aparecida (female form of "appeared") and became a district of Guaratinguetá in 1842. The statue was given the name Nossa Senhora de Aparecida (Our Lady of Aparecida) and the larger church that received the statue, nowadays called Basílica Velha, was finished in 1888.

Aparecida became a municipality in 1928, and one year later, the pope Pio XI declared Our Lady of Aparecida as the patroness of Brazil. The temple that hosts the statue of the saint, the Basílica Nova, construction of which began in 1955. It was declared a National Sanctuary in 1984.

By car
Aparecida is between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, easily accessible from the BR-116 (Rodovia Presidente Dutra) (called SP-060 in the São Paulo state). It can be reached in about 2 hours from São Paulo, and 3 hours from Rio de Janeiro.

By plane
Aparecida's closest airport with commercial flights is in São José dos Campos, about 1 hour by car. São José dos Campos has about 2 intercity buses per hour to Aparecida.

By bus
There are about 2 intercity buses per hour from São Paulo (2 hr 20 min trip, R$ 37.30 as of July 2013), operated by Viação Cometa and Pássaro Marrom. There may be more frequent buses from cities of the Paraíba valley. Buses from Rio de Janeiro are less frequent (every 2 hours or so), and are operated by Viação Sampaio and Expresso Kaiowa.