Through the Aire and Candeeiros Mountain Ranges

On this last day of the Route, the distance between Monsanto and the Sanctuary of Fátima is around 25 km and can be covered in approximately 8 hours. 

The track continues through the Aire and Candeeiros mountain ranges. Along the landscape of deserted mountain ranges, small valleys and hollows dedicated to agricultural production and small hillside villages emerge. 

In this rural environment, traditional agriculture and herding mark the landscape, with traditional stone walls delimiting properties and protecting herds alongside the occasional artisanal stone shepherd shelters. 

The shapes and configurations of the natural landscape dominate, especially the area’s well-known caves and caverns, but also the unusual karst formations and the karst polje of Mira-Minde. 

The approach to Fátima is marked by the contrast between the rural and the urban, the latter naturally associated with the construction of the Sanctuary. Resuming a historical tradition in Portugal, the city of Fátima is the only urban centre next to a place of worship and pilgrimage formed in the 20th century.