Tiles are quite important to the Portuguese people -- they have been making tiles for exterior decoration of their buildings for more than five centuries. The tradition was inherited from the Arabs who ruled the Iberian Peninsula from the 8th century until 1492. You can see a wonderful display on tiles in the National Azulejo Museum in Lisbon, Portugal.

Tiles are cut in a square, tin oxide is coated on the tile, then a pattern is "poked" through into the clay, which is used as frame to paint the tile. The tile is then baked at ~1000 degrees C, which gives it quite different colors than prior.

On the top floor is the grand finale- a monumental tile panel of Lisbon.

You can also see boxes and boxes of tiles being readied to be tiled.

Also some nice modern tiles:

Thanks, Sauce









Azulejo comes from Arabic Zellige, which were ceramic geometric designs used for decorations, since drawings were seen as idolatry.The Portuguese adopted the "horror vacui," or fear of empty spaces of the Moors, so they decorated every little space with something...The tiles were brought to Portugal by Manuel I, after a visit to Seville where he saw the Moorish tiles.In the 16th century the tiles became more advanced, polychrome and often depicted biblical themes.At first checkered tiles of single colours, e.g. blue and white were used, but later polychrome tiles were produced.Many facades of churches in Portugal are covered in Azulejos.The Azulejo Museum was originally a convent; for this reason there is a large chapel inside it.There are also tiles in the church.And the prerequisite creepy Jesus:Later in the 18th century mass production became common, with many international orders coming from Brazil.The 18th century was considered the golden age of the Azulejo.In the mid 18th century, the monumental tiles panels were reduced in size, and more elaborately decorated in the Rococco style.Later on tiles were fabricated on more industrial scales, using transfer printing.There are some silly looking tiles in the Museum...Also they have some other ceramic art in the Museum...And some creepy stuff left over from the convent...Follow me on Facebook to keep up to date with my posts! Next week I'll post on the National Coach Museum! (Feb. 25th 2015).For being sisters of god, they didn't spare any decoration...Some more modern ones, like "Blowjob Mustache"They also had a modern ceramic art exhibit showing some interesting undersea motif...Sauce Magnusson is even depicted here:My Chinese-Goddess wife refused to pose next to this one:Also town filled with Sauce Magnusson-esque characters riding horses:Well, I hope you enjoyed my post on the National Azulejo Museum - check back next week, the 25th of February for the National Coach Museum in Lisbon! Follow me on Facebook to keep up to date with my posts!Check out my video tour guide of Lisbon if you like!