Partner
Centro Nacional de Cultura
The Lisbon cultural association that owns the Caminhos de Fátima: since 1996 it has built up the network of pilgrim routes to Fátima, certifies the routes and issues the official credencial.
The Caminos on the map
Caminos of this partner
Caminho dos CandeeirosThe Caminho dos Candeeiros is the youngest and most mountainous approach to the Sanctuary of Fátima: 63.3 kilometers from the salt pans of Rio Maior straight through the Serras de Aire e Candeeiros Natural Park. It is not a Way of St. James but one of the Caminhos de Fátima, certified by the Centro Nacional de Cultura in 2024 and walkable in three days. Along the way you pass a dolmen inside a village church, the rock cirque of the Fórnea, the karst villages of Arrimal, Mendiga and Alvados, and finally the high plateau of São Mamede. In Alvados it meets the Caminho da Nazaré, and over the last kilometers the Caminho do Tejo.Explore this Camino
Caminho da NazaréThe Caminho da Nazaré is one of the official Caminhos de Fátima: 56.1 kilometers from the clifftop Sítio da Nazaré to the sanctuary in the Cova da Iria. It starts at the Ermida da Memória, where, legend has it, the horse of the knight Fuas Roupinho stopped dead at the edge of the abyss in 1182. From there it crosses the monastic lands of Cós, passes the castle of Porto de Mós and climbs through the karst of the Serras de Aire e Candeeiros. It is not a Camino de Santiago—it is a Marian route from one apparition site to another, in three short days.Explore this Camino
Caminho do TejoThe Caminho do Tejo is the capital's way to Fátima: 152.8 kilometers from the Sé cathedral in Lisbon to the Capelinha das Aparições in Fátima. As far as Santarém you walk the same track as the Central Portuguese Way, with yellow and blue arrows side by side; then the blue route turns northwest into the limestone hills of the Serra de Aire. Along the way lie the Tagus floodplains of the Lezíria, the spring that gave Lisbon its drinking water from 1880, and Minde with its very own secret language.Explore this Camino
Caminho do Médio Tejo – Rota de TomarThe Rota de Tomar is the shortest of the Fátima routes on Camino Ninja: 30.8 kilometers from the Templar town of Tomar to the Cova da Iria, walkable in one long day or two short ones. It is not a Way of St. James but a pilgrimage route of the Caminhos de Fátima, with blue arrows and its own credencial. Its forerunner was laid out in 2015 expressly for Santiago pilgrims who leave the Central Portuguese Way in Tomar for a detour. Just before the finish it passes through Aljustrel, the village of the three shepherd children.Explore this Camino
Caminho do Médio Tejo – Rota da SertãThe Rota da Sertã is the longest of the three Fátima routes from the Médio Tejo: 100.3 kilometers from the pine-covered hills northeast of Sertã to the Sanctuary of Fátima. It passes through Cernache do Bonjardim, where Saint Nuno Álvares Pereira was born in 1360, crosses the Zêzere reservoir to Dornes with its pentagonal Templar tower, crosses the Central Portuguese Way near Areias and reaches the Cova da Iria via Seiça and Ourém. It is not a Way of St. James but a Fátima route with blue waymarks and its own credencial – quiet, heavily wooded and short on beds.Explore this Camino
Caminho do Médio Tejo – Rota de AbrantesThe Rota de Abrantes is one of Portugal's newest Fátima routes: 91.6 kilometers from the hamlet of Casa Branca on the south bank of the Tagus to the Sanctuary of Fátima, presented by the Centro Nacional de Cultura in 2024. The first 60 kilometers follow the river – through Abrantes, which was granted to the Order of St. James in 1173, to Constância where the Zêzere flows in, and past the Templar castle of Almourol on its island in the Tagus. From Torres Novas the route climbs onto the limestone plateau and, after four stages, ends in the Cova da Iria by way of Aljustrel, the village of the shepherd children. It isn't a Camino de Santiago, but in Vila Nova da Barquinha it crosses the Central Portuguese Way.Explore this Camino
Caminho do NorteThe Caminho do Norte is the longest of the Fátima routes: 368.7 kilometers from the border bridge in Valença to the Capelinha das Aparições in Fátima. For the first 311 kilometers you walk almost entirely on the route of the Central Portuguese Way – only heading south, with blue arrows ahead of you and the yellow arrows of the Santiago pilgrims at your back. Along the way lie Ponte de Lima, Barcelos, Porto, Coimbra and the limestone hills of Sicó; only beyond Ansião does the route strike out on its own paths via Freixianda and Ourém into the Cova da Iria.Explore this Camino
Who is behind the routes
The Centro Nacional de Cultura (CNC) is a private cultural association in Lisbon, founded on 13 May 1945 – the anniversary of the first apparition at Fátima – and recognised by the Portuguese state as an association of public utility. For decades it has brought together literature, art and debate, and since 1996 it has also been setting pilgrims on the way to Fátima.
The CNC owns the project and the brand of the Caminhos de Fátima. It develops routes itself or certifies routes laid out by municipalities and regions, always in consultation with the Sanctuary of Fátima. You can recognise the network by the sign the CNC designed in 1996: a white holm oak, the tree of the apparitions, on a blue background, with a cross added in 2017. Blue arrows complete the waymarking.
The routes of the Centro Nacional de Cultura
- Caminho do Norte – 368.7 km from Valença on the Spanish border via Ponte de Lima, Porto and Coimbra to Fátima, largely along the Camino Portugués in the opposite direction
- Caminho do Tejo – 152.8 km from Lisbon Cathedral along the Tagus to Santarém and on to Fátima; shared with the Camino Portugués as far as Santarém
- Caminho do Médio Tejo – Rota de Tomar – 30.8 km the shortest branch of the Caminho do Médio Tejo, from Tomar across the hills of the Nabão to Fátima
- Caminho do Médio Tejo – Rota de Abrantes – 91.6 km branch of the Caminho do Médio Tejo, from Abrantes to Fátima
- Caminho do Médio Tejo – Rota da Sertã – 100.3 km branch of the Caminho do Médio Tejo, from the Sertã to Fátima
- Caminho dos Candeeiros – 63.3 km from Rio Maior across the limestone heights of the Serra dos Candeeiros to Fátima, certified since 2024
- Caminho da Nazaré – 56.1 km from the Sítio da Nazaré high above the Atlantic inland to Fátima
The network also includes the Caminho do Centenário and the Rota Carmelita. A note on the map: on the Camino Ninja overview map, Santiago is pre-selected as the destination. The Caminhos de Fátima only appear once you also select Fátima as a destination.
What the Centro Nacional de Cultura does for pilgrims
The CNC issues the only official credencial of the Caminhos de Fátima, for a donation of €2 (as of October 2026). You can get it in Lisbon, by post and at distribution points such as cathedrals, tourist offices and some pilgrim hostels. Stamps are given everywhere along the way, from parish offices to cafés. Since March 2026 the CNC has also issued its own certificate, for a donation of €7, on presentation of the credencial with clearly legible start and finish stamps.
Together with its partners, including the Sanctuary of Fátima and the Comunidade Intermunicipal do Médio Tejo, the CNC publishes route guides and presents new routes – the Caminho do Norte and the Caminho da Nazaré in 2019, the three branches of the Caminho do Médio Tejo in 2024.
Contact and getting involved
The Centro Nacional de Cultura is based at Rua António Maria Cardoso 68 in Lisbon's Chiado district. You can reach it by email at info@cnc.pt; the credencial can also be ordered by phone on +351 21 346 67 22. All routes, distribution points and news are on caminhosdefatima.org. A cultural association that shows pilgrims a way to Fátima that does not run along the motorway.