LISBON — As Portugal lost its colonies around the globe, the country’s nearly six centuries of influence ensured a legacy of distinctive decorative style: delicate filigree jewelry, colorful azulejo tiles, intricate wrought iron work and black-and-white patterned stone sidewalks and praças, or plazas.

Those limestone surfaces are pedestrian objects in more ways than one: made to be trampled on, day in and day out, in places like Macau and Rio de Janeiro. “They are a carpet that people don’t always notice,” said Luísa Dornellas, director of the Escolas de Jardinagem e Calceteiros, the schools of gardeners and stone pavers.

But in Lisbon, the heart of Portuguese culture, the pavements are considered works of art. Since the City Council established the paving school in 1986, it has trained 224 calceteiros, or pavers, to maintain the limestone surfaces in the city as well as create new ones.