You have probably seen azulejos even if you had no idea what they were called. They cover old Portuguese façades, churches, palaces, stations and loads of normal buildings too. Some are repeating patterns, while others join together to make huge painted scenes.
They are incredibly interesting, especially when you start to know a little bit about what you are actually looking at.
Azulejos are glazed ceramic tiles used on buildings, walls and other architectural surfaces. They are strongly connected with Portugal, where they have been used for centuries across interiors, façades and public spaces.
What is an azulejo, exactly?
In the most simple way possible, an azulejo is a glazed ceramic tile. The Cambridge Portuguese-English Dictionary translates it as a glazed tile, so that gives us a pretty good starting point.
In Portugal though, azulejos became much more than just individual decorative tiles.
They can repeat across a whole wall, create large geometric patterns, frame parts of a building or join together to make one massive painted image.
Those images can show religious stories, landscapes, battles, mythology, plants, people or even normal scenes from everyday life.
One azulejo is one tile. Put hundreds of them together and you can end up with a pattern, an entire room, the front of a building or one huge piece of art.
Portugal's National Azulejo Museum has Portuguese tilework dating from the late 15th century right through to modern work. That gives you a pretty good idea of just how long azulejos have been part of Portuguese culture.
What does the word azulejo mean?
It is really easy to assume that the word has something to do with the colour blue.
Azulejo looks pretty similar to azul, which is the Portuguese word for blue. Then you have all those famous blue-and-white Portuguese tiles, so the connection seems obvious.
The word actually comes from somewhere else.
Visit Portugal traces azulejo back to the Arabic term al-zuleique, which referred to a small smooth or polished stone.
That also makes sense when you look at some of the early influences behind tile decoration across the Iberian Peninsula. Islamic art and its geometric and decorative patterns played a big part in the story.
So if someone says azulejo, they are talking about the tile itself. It does not mean blue tile.
Are Portuguese azulejos always blue and white?
No. There are loads of Portuguese azulejos that are not blue and white.
Blue and white became one of the most famous styles, which is probably why so many people now connect those colours with Portugal, but historic tiles used a much wider range of colours.
Earlier patterns often included blue, green, yellow, white and darker details. Different periods then brought different colours, techniques and styles.
The reason blue and white became so popular is actually super interesting because Chinese porcelain, European ceramics and Portuguese painting all become part of the story.
We cover all of that properly in why Portuguese tiles became blue and white .
Where did Portuguese azulejos come from?
Decorative ceramic tiles were around long before Portugal became famous for them.
The Portuguese tile tradition grew from influences that had already moved through the Islamic world and the Iberian Peninsula. Early Portuguese buildings used Hispano-Moresque tiles produced in places such as Seville.
One of the best places to still see this early connection is the National Palace of Sintra , where decorative tiles became part of the Portuguese royal palace.
Portugal then started developing its own production, and artists kept changing what could actually be done with a ceramic tile.
By the 17th and 18th centuries, azulejos were everywhere in Portuguese architecture. You had repeating patterns, decorative borders and huge painted panels covering whole walls.
Hispano-Moresque tiles and geometric decoration start becoming established in Portuguese architecture.
Portugal starts developing more of its own tile production, including workshops in Lisbon.
Repeating patterns, decorative work and painted scenes become much more common.
Large painted panels and blue-and-white tilework become some of the best-known parts of Portuguese azulejo design.
Production gets faster and tiled façades start appearing on more buildings across Portuguese towns and cities.
Azulejos are still used in Portuguese art, architecture and public spaces.
That is only a quick run through it. There is a lot more going on once you start looking at how the styles, techniques and influences changed over time.
If you want the full version, read our history of Portuguese azulejo tiles .
How did azulejos become part of Brazil?
Azulejos did not stay in Portugal.
They travelled across the Atlantic as Portugal expanded into Brazil, and there is still a huge amount of historic Portuguese tilework there today.
You can find some really important examples in old religious buildings and historic city centres.
Salvador
The cloister of the Church and Convent of São Francisco in Salvador has 37 figurative azulejo panels dating from around 1746–1748. Brazil's National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute, IPHAN , describes them as the most important set of 18th-century azulejo coverings in Brazil.
São Luís in Maranhão is another really good example.
Its historic centre has thousands of buildings from Brazil's colonial and imperial periods, and IPHAN specifically points to the azulejos as one of the things that gives the city its look.
Keeping all of this tilework in good condition is a job in itself.
When the São Francisco panels in Salvador were restored, the project also trained interns, apprentices and assistants in azulejo restoration. So the restoration was not just about fixing one building. It also helped pass those skills on to people who could work on other historic tiles in the future.
It is a really good example of how far the Portuguese azulejo tradition travelled and how much work still goes into protecting it.
What were azulejos used for?
They were obviously used to decorate buildings, but the scale is what makes them so interesting.
Instead of putting decoration onto a finished wall, the wall itself could become the decoration.
Azulejos have been used across:
- churches and convents
- royal palaces
- private homes
- building façades
- gardens and fountains
- staircases and corridors
- railway stations
- metro stations
- other public spaces
Tiles could create a repeating pattern, frame a doorway or window, or build up into a massive visual scene.
A big historic azulejo panel is more like looking at a painting than a normal tiled wall. The image just happens to be made from hundreds of individual ceramic tiles.
What types of Portuguese azulejos are there?
There is not one single Portuguese azulejo style.
Some are geometric. Some use flowers, leaves and decorative borders. Others create full scenes with landscapes, people or stories. Then you have building façades where one smaller design is repeated over and over again across a much bigger surface.
| Type | What you are looking at |
|---|---|
| Pattern tiles | Individual tiles repeated together to create one much larger pattern. |
| Figurative panels | Lots of individual tiles painted together to create one scene with people, landscapes, religious subjects or historical events. |
| Ornamental tiles | Decorative borders, flowers, leaves, framing and other decorative details. |
| Façade tiles | Repeating tiles used across the outside of a building. |
| Contemporary azulejos | Modern ceramic work still being used by artists and architects in buildings, stations and public spaces. |
Once you start properly looking at them, there is a huge amount of variation.
Our guide to Portuguese tile patterns and their meanings goes further into the different designs and motifs you are likely to see.
How are azulejos made?
The exact process depends on when the tile was made and what technique was being used, so there is not one method that works for every azulejo.
A lot of historic painted azulejos are glazed earthenware. The ceramic tile gets a glazed surface, which can then be painted with ceramic pigments before it is fired.
The glaze gives the artist a clean surface to work on, and the firing process fixes the design into the ceramic.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has Portuguese examples made from tin-glazed earthenware, which was also used in decorative pottery across Europe.
What gets really impressive is the scale.
Repeating one pattern properly across a whole wall takes a lot of planning. Painting hundreds of separate tiles that all have to line up perfectly to create one huge picture is another level again.
Why are azulejos so important in Portugal?
A big part of it is simply that Portugal kept using them.
They were not something that appeared for one period and then disappeared.
Azulejos moved from royal palaces and churches into private homes, building façades, railway stations and public spaces. The styles changed. The colours changed. The way they were produced changed. Artists kept finding different things to do with them.
The basic idea of decorating with ceramic tile just kept working.
That is what makes them much more interesting than just seeing a nice Portuguese pattern.
Behind the finished tile are Islamic and Iberian influences, Portuguese workshops, painters, architecture, industrial production and modern artists who still use azulejos today.
You can see that whole development through the collection at the National Azulejo Museum.
Where can you see Portuguese azulejos?
If you are in Portugal, you really do not need to look very hard.
Lisbon and Porto are probably the obvious places to start because tiled buildings are everywhere, but you will find azulejos all over the country.
Look at apartment buildings, churches, old shops, stations, courtyards and staircases.
If you actually want to learn about them rather than just spot them around the city, the National Azulejo Museum in Lisbon is probably the best place to start.
It is inside the former Convent of Madre de Deus and covers hundreds of years of Portuguese tilework.
The National Palace of Sintra is also worth knowing about if you want to see some much earlier examples in a completely different setting.
But you will probably see some of your favourite ones without planning it at all.
You can turn down a normal street and suddenly find a whole building covered in patterned ceramic.
Why we like azulejos
Azulejos are exactly the kind of thing we find interesting at CITTRA Collective.
You notice the colour and pattern first because they look great. Then you start learning a bit more about them and suddenly there is all this history, architecture and cultural influence behind what you are looking at.
That is really what CITTRA is about.
We create decorative art around real places, traditions, symbols and normal parts of everyday culture. The print still has to look good on the wall, obviously, but there should also be a genuine reason why that subject is there.
Portuguese azulejos are perfect for that because the visual side and the cultural side are already so closely connected.
Portugal on the wall
Portuguese azulejos reworked as contemporary prints
Our Portuguese Azulejo collection takes inspiration from Portuguese tilework and mixes it with subjects that actually connect back to Portugal.
We want the finished print to look great, but we also want there to be something real behind it.
Explore the Azulejo collection See a featured Azulejo printQuestions about azulejos
What are azulejos?
Azulejos are glazed ceramic tiles used on walls and other parts of buildings. They are especially connected with Portugal, where you will find them on façades, churches, palaces, homes, stations and public spaces.
What does azulejo mean in English?
Azulejo is normally translated into English as a glazed tile. The Portuguese word is commonly traced back to the Arabic term al-zuleique.
Does azulejo mean blue?
No. Blue in Portuguese is azul. The word azulejo is normally traced back to Arabic, even though the two Portuguese words look pretty similar.
Are azulejos always blue and white?
No. Blue and white became one of the best-known styles, but historic Portuguese azulejos also use green, yellow and plenty of other colours.
Are azulejos Portuguese or Spanish?
Decorative glazed tiles have a much wider Islamic and Iberian history. Early Portuguese tilework was heavily influenced by tiles made in places such as Seville. Portugal then developed its own workshops and styles, which eventually became a major part of Portuguese art and architecture.
Are there Portuguese azulejos in Brazil?
Yes. Portuguese tilework became part of Brazilian architecture during the colonial period. Some really important historic collections still survive in places such as Salvador and São Luís, and specialist restoration work continues to protect them.
Why is Portugal famous for azulejos?
Portugal used azulejos on a huge scale and kept developing them for hundreds of years. They became part of palaces, churches, houses, building façades, stations and public spaces across the country.
Where can I learn more about Portuguese azulejos?
The National Azulejo Museum in Lisbon is probably the best place to start. Its collection covers Portuguese tilework from historic examples right through to modern ceramic art.
Sources & further reading
The main historical and cultural information in this article comes from museums and official heritage organisations.
- National Azulejo Museum
- Visit Portugal — In the Country of Tiles
- Parques de Sintra — National Palace of Sintra
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Portuguese Tin-Glazed Tiles
- Cambridge Dictionary — Azulejo
- IPHAN — Restoration of the Portuguese Azulejos at São Francisco, Salvador
- IPHAN — Historic Centre of São Luís