My Escapes Portugal Another Lovely Trip to Portugal! Lisbon In Lisbon Again The Azulejo Museum

The Azulejo Museum

I felt tremendous elation when visiting Lisbon's Azulejo Museum, which I consider the best museum in the entire city.
It holds an impressive collection of painted azulejo ceramic tiles. Incredible diversity and besides this, the beautiful church of Madre de Deus is also incorporated within the museum complex.

If there's one (special) museum that you shouldn't miss seeing, when you're in Lisbon, then that's the ominous Azulejo Museum.

It has probably the most impressive collection of painted and glazed ceramic tiles, which are iconic to Portugal.

The entry costs a mere 5 EUR, but getting there was a bit difficult, as it's situated in a peripheral industrial and port area.

The museum is large enough to spend at least an hour in there - contemplating the gems of Portuguese ceramic tiles.

The only thing I felt sorry for was that not a single piece of the souvenir azulejo tiles (on sale) were anywhere near the beauty of the original ones. I would have loved to obtain a replica...

The azulejo tiles are Portuguese or Spanish ceramic tiles frequently used in decorating buildings' walls (both exterior and interior).

The most beautiful azulejo-covered walls that I saw were in the city of Porto, but they're really at every step in Lisbon as well.

Azulejos are iconic to Portugal, but they're of Moorish origin.

The tiles are either painted or tin-glazed and the abundance of blue tiles with specific paintwork are characteristic to Portugal.

Shapes characteristic to islamic art can be seen on the tiles on the Iberian Peninsula and, of course - they're plentiful in Morocco.

These beautiful tiles are not mere embellishments, they also help control the temperature of the buildings whose walls they cover.

I encountered the most alluring murals created with these azulejos at a Porto train station and on churches walls in the same city...

And, to be honest, I think Porto is a better place in terms of azulejo-covered buildings.

Still, the greatest variety of these tiles can be seen at this museum, which will even take you through the process of manufacturing.

As the name of the ceramic tiles suggests, they're generally blue.

Because the tiles originate from the Moors, the tradition of painting and tin-glazing tiles exists in Morocco, Spain and Portugal.

I could recall seeing colourfully-painted and glazed tiles in Spain and Morocco as well.

You will find azulejos as far as Latin American countries, among which Brazil and Mexico stand out.

I remember my explorations in Valencia's Old Town last year. Although, those tiles were a lot more colourful, not focusing mainly on colour blue, as the vast majority of Portuguese tiles.

But, the Valencian tile compositions don't reach the sophistication of the murals I was able to contemplate in Portugal.

As inside this museum, the azulejos were frequently depicting complex historic moments - such as battles or, they display landscapes, sights...

Often times, the azulejo murals are complex compositions involving thousands of tiles.

Below is a depiction of the museum's canteen. How lovely!

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