This is Aveiro station. At night. Last train. Beautifully lit, beautifully restored, beautiful tiles – one of the best places to admire the famous Portuguese tiles. The “São Bento” station in Porto is even more famous, but there are already so many photos of it.
The famous Portuguese tiles
Some of them have been there for centuries. In the 17th century, Portuguese people visited Delft and copied the art there. They also went to Spain to see how to tackle mass production. And then they did their own thing with it.
(Don’t judge too harshly, because that’s how art works on all sides. So does life, by the way. It’s all nicked.)
By the way, Life also damages those tiles – or it’s Father Time, I’m not sure, but they last a lot longer than a coat of paint. Even the colorful stucco can’t compete with it. Portuguese houses on this coast strip are tiled, if the owner could afford it.
I write “could” but it should be “can” because tiling is still much more expensive than painting. I understand the current Portuguese building style perfectly: one floor (you can easily reach the roof), colored stucco (because paint is cheaper than tiling), and a flat roof (also the cheapest solution). Don’t dream too big, and there you have your own dream house.
Beautiful? I”m afraid my taste is a bit different
I am prejudiced, because I hate painting and I love tiles. And that is what I am looking for now. In person, because what I’m looking for, you will not find online. I am looking for old-fashioned tiles for the exterior with a nice pattern, whatever color, because mosaicing the wintergarden of the Casa Principal is too much for me. That means half a year on the scaffolding, if I were to work 40-hour weeks. Not a reachable goal.
It could be something like this (take a quick look below) I’m not that picky, but I am picky about color. What’s in fashion now … sorry but I don’t get excited about it. Fake-stones-in-relief, fake-rocks-in-relief, marble-like, and lots of (dark/medium) gray, black and white. Boo.
This is actually a Cry for Help
Do you happen to have 15 square meters of Beautiful tiles in your shed/cellar/storage? Let me know, and if it’s not too far*, I’ll be happy to come and pick it up with my Supervan HH Master. It doesn’t have to be free. With all the technical possibilities of today, we can decide in advance whether it’s worth it.
And if it is, it’s probably a nice win-win. Also a big fan of.
* We’re in Beira Litoral, 12 km from the coast at Figueira da Foz. For nice tiles I’m willing to drive a certain amount of miles, but as you can understand there’s a limit … like Trás-os-Montes, the Algarve of south of the Alentejo.