(photograph © Kiwidutch)
No matter where you are in Portugal, there is one thing that you will see over and over again.
Something Portugal is understandably famous for… Tiles!
The Portugese word for “tiles” is “Azulejos” pronounced as “Azz-u-lay-ju-ss” and they appear to come in three distinctive sorts.
The first are the famous montages of tiles, this is where more than one tile is painted so that together they form a picture… imagine a jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces have neat straight sides and you get the idea.
Porto’s São Bento train Station is a fine example of this sort of tile-work. http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/new-165/
Then there are the plain, flat, square tiles with patterns ranging from the most plain to the most complicated… floral, geometric, colours are often blue and white, sometimes with the Portuguese yellow mixed in, browns also feature, as do cream, green and even gray.
In many of these tiles, the Moorish influences can be seen in the beautiful geometric patterns, originating from Islamic occupation of the Iberian Peninsular in centuries past…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
So that’s a little insight into my time out on the tiles… but there are some I’ve missed out completely….
