Tiles on Old Aveiro Houses

I read this today...

There’s a Tile Theft Epidemic in Lisbon
by JENNY BARCHFIELD FEB 19, 2019 in CityLab online Magazine

“With a single azulejo fetching hundreds of euros at the city’s more reputable antique stores, these tiles, sitting there out in the open, are easy pickings.”

Chris and I have been to a lot of towns and cities in Portugal where coloured tiles are used to decorate the outside of the houses but nowhere have we seen as many as we saw this afternoon in Aveiro. Pretty sad what is happening to these tiles in Lisbon.

Tiles, or azulejos, were common in traditional Portuguese construction because they were affordable to the general public. In Aveiro, the use of tiles also provided waterproofing and were a form of decoration on houses built in somewhat boring-looking adobe (sun-dried clay bricks). Tiles with floral motifs were very sought after in the early 1900’s and these were produced locally in the Fonte Nova Factory, which now houses the Cultural and Congress Center.

In a matter of 5 minutes, on one street, Chris was able to take photos of 10 different patterns of tiles on the old houses, and there were so many more. Here are Chris’ ‘5 minutes of tiles’ photos.Read more