Azulejos, the Hand Painted Jewels of Portugal

União das Freguesias de Cedofeita,

As soon as you step foot into Portugal you can’t help but see the colorful tiles covering everything; houses, businesses, churches, hallways - you name it.

Igreja de Santo Ildefonso, Church of Saint Ildefonso

Azulejo derives from the Arabic word al-zulayi translated as little stone. They have been around since the 14th century and initially came from North Africa.

Popularity of these tiles grew and and as demand grew more production occurred in Spain and then were imported to Portugal.

Flemish artists were brought to Lisbon in the 1550’s. They began producing the tiles to the point they no longer needed them imported from Spain.

As the skill developed, artists would later paint entire scenes, which can be seen on many buildings inside and out.

São Bento Train Station

For example, the São Bento Train Station covered in over 20,000 hand painted jewels depicting historic battles and the history of transportAction.

São Train Station

São Train Station

The tiles from above and below are from a bustop I stumbled across during one of the stops we made during our Douro Valley wine tour.

Interesting fact - Ferdinand Magellan was born here around 1480. You know, the Strait of Magellan guy. Interesting that he became a world explorer coming from a small area in the north of Portugal - not remotely close to the ocean or sea.

The rest of the tiles are from random places from around Porto, Barga, Tenões, Guimarães and Cabril.