Here comes my 1st portuguese official of the year. A nice surprise.
Tiles (called azulejos) are everywhere in Portugal and they are one of the strongest expressions of our culture. They often portray scenes from our history, our traditions, monuments, faith or simply serve as street signs, nameplates, or house numbers.
sofoto* Foto © Marialva
Al-zuleique is the Arabic word that became the Portuguese azulejo (tile) and referred to the “small, smooth stone” used by Muslims in the Middle Ages. Their use of tiles to decorate floors and walls pleased the Portuguese Kings and subsequently won pride of place in architecture from the 15th century. We could say that Portugal adopted them in an unparalleled way, like no other European country.
It was in the 18th century that tiles “invaded” churches and convents, palaces and homes, gardens, fountains and staircases. With geometric patterns, telling the life stories of saints or depicting profane themes, such as La Fontaine’s fables, sometimes with captions like an old version of a cartoon, they became one of the main features of Portuguese decoration.
Travelling across the country is like visiting a living museum of tiles, but it is in the National Tile Museum in Lisbon that you can get to know, like nowhere else, their history and artistic and technical evolution, from early times to modern-day production.
Tiles are still used in the 21st century by the most avant-garde trends as a key feature of civic art. - in: https://www.visitportugal.com/en/content/country-tiles
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