Museu Nacional do Azulejo, Central Portugal, Portugal

5retireeVancouver 5:00 PM Dec 18, 2022

Splendid array of tiles plus a chance to see them insitu in the church
It was easy getting to the National Tile Museum from the Santa Apolonia cruise ship port because bus 759 stops at the bus stop, Cais Lingueta, which is directly opposite this port, and also stops at the National Tile Museum. This route took about 7 minutes. The entrance to the museum is at the side of the church (see google maps). I stayed for 1 ½ hours. Note the hours for the Museum as they are not continuously open during the day. There is a covered, shady courtyard café for sandwiches (2E), coffee (1E), pastries, and a gift shop which didn’t have any inexpensive tiles (under 5E) to buy as souvenirs. Inside the museum, the tiles were displayed on walls on 2 floors. The tiles had bilingual labels including English which included the year and location where the tile had been placed. An information board briefly explained the history of Portuguese tiles - the designs used in Islamic and European motifs, where they were used, and the preferred colors. A display case showed the steps in creating and coloring the tiles. The tiles on display ranged from single tiles to 2x2, 4x4, etc., to wall/carpet tiles framed with a frieze/frame. While the Islamic inspired tiles had interesting geometric designs, the ones with European inspired motifs caught my attention with their landscape and daily life scenes. One of the carpet tiles using a European motif showed the wedding of a chicken with the chicken in the carriage being driven by animal coachman. What a laugh! Of course, the church wanted wall tile carpets with religious scenes and these too were on display. The amount of tiles on display was staggering! There was also a short documentary video on the history of Portuguese tiles showing many insitu. From the 2nd story there was a balcony that allowed visitors to view the interiors of the church, Igreja Madre Deus, and then after actually enter the church. It was eye candy! Not only were the lower portions of the walls tiled with religious scenes, above those tiles and, even, the ceiling was covered in gilt framed paintings. Gilt details abounded around the altar. It was great to see the wall tiles insitu. The entrance fee was a reasonable 2.50E for seniors. This was a memorable visit to see such a variety of tile collected in one building.

4Nicole S 5:00 PM Oct 6, 2022

Worth a visit
This place was really cool. Not many descriptions in English but we spent a solid 1.5 hours here and that included taking pictures of just about everything. We wish there was an audio guide or something because there were definitely pieces we wish we could learn about more. I would put this near the top of the list for anyone visiting Lisbon.