The Fátima chapel on Santa Maria: 165 steps, São Pedro and Almagreira

Most visitors cross São Pedro and Almagreira without noticing either, on the way from Vila do Porto to the north coast or down to Praia Formosa. They are the two farming parishes between the town and Pico Alto, and they are worth half a day of slow driving. The main reason to stop is a hilltop chapel at Feteiras with 165 steps up to it, which the Shrine of Fátima calls the first chapel in the world dedicated to Our Lady of Fátima after the Chapel of the Apparitions. Around it are two parish churches, a handful of small chapels on farm roads, and the red clay that gave Almagreira its name.

Santa Maria has a single municipality, Vila do Porto, split into five parishes: Vila do Porto itself, Almagreira, Santa Bárbara, Santo Espírito and São Pedro. São Pedro is the larger of the two covered here, 18.17 km² of pasture and scattered hamlets north of the town, running up to the Barreiro da Faneca and the north coast. Almagreira lies east of the town, from the wooded slopes of Pico Alto down to the pale sand of Praia Formosa on the south coast. At the 2011 census São Pedro had 841 people and Almagreira 599.

Neither has a centre in the way a town does. São Pedro is a string of localities with names like Paul, Pilar, Feteiras de Cima and Ribeira do Engenho, and Almagreira is the same: Brejo de Baixo, Falcão, Carreira, Fonte Nova. The churches and chapels are the landmarks, and road signs to them are how you find your way.

The chapel stands on a hill at Feteiras, in São Pedro parish. Do not confuse it with the Feteiras on the Santa Bárbara side of the island, which has its own bus stops.

The Shrine of Fátima, on its own website, gives the chapel's dates: permission to build was requested on 11 July 1924, the first stone was laid on 18 October 1925 and the chapel was blessed on 17 May 1928. That was eleven years after the apparitions in Fátima, and the shrine describes it as the first chapel in the world in honour of Our Lady of Fátima after the Chapel of the Apparitions there. Its founder was the priest Virgínio Lopes Tavares.

The stairs are the reason to come. There are 165 steps, one for each Hail Mary of the rosary, with a landing every ten steps for each Our Father. Each step was paid for by a family of the parish.

We found no published opening hours, so the door may be locked when you arrive. Treat the stairs and the hilltop as the visit and anything inside as a bonus.

São Pedro was the island's fourth church parish, created in 1603 after a visit by the Bishop of Angra and confirmed by Philip II in 1611. Its first seat was a hermitage at Pedras de São Pedro, which is still the name of a stop on the town bus. As the population grew, a new church was opened at Rosa Alta, and it took over as the parish seat in 1698.

The soil here is good, and São Pedro became a farming parish with manor houses, solares, many of them with a private chapel. Besides the Fátima chapel, the parish lists hermitages of Nossa Senhora da Saúde, Nossa Senhora de Monserrate and Nossa Senhora do Pilar, a Holy Spirit império known as the Império dos Milagres, and the Fonte de São José, an old public fountain. None of them is a sight in the ticket-and-opening-hours sense. They are things you pass, stop at for five minutes and photograph.

The parish also reaches the north coast. Faneca and Bananeiras are São Pedro localities: the first gives its name to the Barreiro da Faneca, the red clay landscape, and the second is where the PR01SMA Costa Norte trail starts. Both have their own articles on this site, and they fit well on the same day as the Fátima chapel.

Almagreira probably takes its name from almagre, a red clay once used as a pigment. Its eastern half climbs onto the wooded slopes of Pico Alto, with Pico das Cavacas (492 m), Pico do Bom Despacho (294 m) and Pico do Facho (254 m). The western half is a flat plateau of pasture.

The parish church is Nossa Senhora do Bom Despacho. A deed for the chapel that became it was signed on 11 June 1702 by a couple, Manuel de Moura and Inês Pereira. It was enlarged in 1859, from 12 May to a first mass on 27 November, on donated land, into the church you see now: a single nave about 26 m long, white plastered walls with corner pilasters and pinnacles, and a bell tower on the right side. It was restored in 2005. Almagreira had a curate from 1766 but only became a parish of its own, separate from Vila do Porto, by a decree of 25 October 1906.

Lower down is Praia Formosa, which also belongs to Almagreira. The beach appears as "Plaia Hermosa" on a map by Luís Teixeira dated 1584, and the coast saw English pirates in 1599 and Barbary pirates in 1616. Two small things there are easy to miss:

• The ruins of the Fort of São João Baptista, built to guard the beach, of which only some walls remain.
• The hermitage of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios, also called Santo Amaro, whose door carries the inscription "1868/S AMARO".

The Miradouro da Macela, at the western end of the bay, gives the view along the beach.

The parish has a few more old buildings: the 1819 chapel of Nossa Senhora do Monte at Meia Laranja, the hermitage of Nossa Senhora da Graça and the ruined Quinta dos Arrudas, built in 1871. Almagreira lost much of its population after 1960; by 1991 it had 38% of its 1960 figure, mostly through emigration.

A car is the practical way, because the chapels are spread over several hamlets.

The bus helps for part of it. TSM route 3, Cais de Vila do Porto to Paul, runs through São Pedro and the edge of Almagreira, with stops at Pedras de São Pedro, São José, Graça, Falcão and Paul. In the timetable TSM was publishing in October 2026, it leaves the harbour every hour on weekdays from 07:30 to 17:30 and takes 25 minutes to Paul, with the last bus back from Paul at 18:05. On Saturdays it runs only until early afternoon, and there is no bus on Sunday. Check the timetable before you rely on it. No route stops at the Fátima chapel, so plan on walking from the nearest stop or taking a taxi.

Start at the Fátima chapel in the morning, while the steps are still cool. Drive on through São Pedro, stopping at whichever chapels you pass, and go north to the Barreiro da Faneca. Come back south through Almagreira to the Bom Despacho church, and finish at Praia Formosa: the Macela viewpoint, the fort walls, the Santo Amaro chapel, and a swim in summer.

If you are walking PR01SMA from Bananeiras, add the chapel on the way to the start. Check Azores Trails first: on 20 October 2026 the PR04SMA and PR05SMA trails on Santa Maria were listed as temporarily closed, and PR01SMA was not on the list.

Where is the Fátima chapel on Santa Maria?

At Feteiras, in the parish of São Pedro, north of Vila do Porto. It is reached by a staircase of 165 steps.

Why is it special?

It was blessed on 17 May 1928, and the Shrine of Fátima calls it the first chapel in the world dedicated to Our Lady of Fátima after the Chapel of the Apparitions.

Can I go inside?

Perhaps. We found no published opening hours, so it may be locked. The stairs and the hilltop are the visit.

Can I get there by bus?

Partly. TSM route 3 to Paul runs through São Pedro on weekdays and Saturday mornings, never on Sundays, but no stop serves the chapel itself.

• Santuário de Fátima: Ermida de Nossa Senhora de Fátima, Santa Maria
• Wikipedia: São Pedro (Vila do Porto)
• Wikipedia: Almagreira (Vila do Porto)
• Wikipedia: Church of Nossa Senhora do Bom Despacho
• byAçores: Praia Formosa
• Transportes de Santa Maria: route 3 timetable
• Azores Trails: alerts