It is home to and named after the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil, declared so by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

Aparecida receives more than 7 million tourists a year making it the most popular religious pilgrimage site in Latin America.

In 1978 it was attacked and reduced to hundreds of fragments which were meticulously put back together by specialists from the São Paulo Museum of Art.

[5] Aparecida was the source of a proposal endorsed by Pope Francis in 2020 to establish a collaborative ministry among the local churches of the various South American countries in the Amazon basin, with differentiated priorities.

[8] The company is currently an operator of cell phones, fixed lines, internet (fiber optics/4G) and television (satellite and cable).