Portugal 2024: Lisbon - Marvila Tile Museum, Flight Home

Our final excursion in Lisbon was in the Marvila neighbourhood north of Chiado, where the National Tile Museum of the Azulejo is housed in the former 16th Century Madre de Deus Convent.  Open since 1971, the museum's collection showcases the evolution of Portuguese azulejo tilework spanning from the 15th century to the present day, reflecting the history and culture of Portugal.  Meaning "polished stone" in Arabic, azulejo is a form of Portuguese/Spanish painted tin-glazed ceramic tile art.  Because of its distance from the city’s historic centre, we mistakenly believed that this would a less popular, off the beaten path destination.  We were surprised to arrive just before the doors opened, to find a lineup waiting ahead of us that continued to grow in length before we were let in.  We passed by many beautiful tileworks after paying our admission fees but decided to look at those later.  Noting that the Chapel would close for several hours in the afternoon, we decided to rush over and view that first.

The lavish and opulent Madres de Deus Church was built in Portuguese Baroque style during the reign of King Joao III.  It features gilded woodwork and large scaled Portuguese paintings on the walls and ceilings, as well as azulejos tilework including pieces by Dutch artists such as Jan van Oort and Willem van der Kloet.  The main altar is framed by a triumphal arch with intricate gilded carvings complemented by oil paintings and azulejo (tile) panels depicting religious scenes from the lives of Saint Francis and Saint Clare.  On the church walls, large tile panels depict rustic court scenes,  religious imagery including the lives of hermit saints Anthony and Paul, Franciscan monks praying, and allegorical scenes.  A large-scaled nativity scene (circa 1700) is attributed to Dionísio and António Ferreira.  Made from polychrome terracotta, then painted and decorated with gold and silver, the figures depict shepherds and the Magi visiting Mary and baby Jesus with cherubs and angels hovering above.

Created by Marçal de Matos in 1580, the Altarpiece of Our Lady of Life (Retábulo de Nossa Senhora da Vida) is one of the most important pieces in the collection.  Employing the trompe l’oeil technique with a wide range of tones, almost 1500 tiles are used to simulate a 3-piece altar on painted board. The centre panel depicts the “Adoration of the Shepherds” who arrive to view baby Jesus.  At the top of the altarpiece, an open space was left to let light in through a window in its original location within the Church of Santo André, where the sunbeam that shone through represented the path the dove flew to reach Mary during the Annunciation.

The museum includes two cloisters or covered walkways.  The walls of the larger one features a chronological retrospective of azueljo tiles through the centuries.  We started by touring the Small Cloister which was designed in 16th Century Manueline style and features 19th-century diamond-patterned tiles on the ground floor.  It is one of the few surviving elements of the original Madre de Deus monastery.  Baroque 17th Century set of azulejo, Portuguese painted tiles that cover the walls of the second floor come from other convents including Convento de Santa Ana.  The blue and white tileworks depict a series of seated women including a lady grasping a mask and a lute, a queen brandishing a sword while also holding a harp, and an idyllic scene of a pensive woman with a book on her lap surveying her surroundings.

The panel designed in 1630 for the staircase in the St Benedict Convent is unique because it is comprised of diamond-shaped tiles laid out to match the slope of the stairs to create the illusion of movement. The blue, white and yellow design depicts mythological figures with goat hooves who are meant to protect shepherds and their flocks.  They are surrounded by blue curlicue patterns, as well as cupids, masks, satyrs and coats of arms including the one for the Order of St. Benedict, which consists of a lion holding a shepherd’s staff.  A fake stairway was built in the museum to illustrate how the piece was mounted.

The Chicken’s Wedding panel is a large, (probably satirical) panel designed by Manuel Francisco (circa 1660-1667) and is a prime example of “Singerie”, a popular 16th Century visual trope where fashionably dressed monkeys are depicted displaying human behaviour.  The entourage of monkeys, playing musical instruments, riding on horses and in carriages, seem to be escorting a chicken in a gilded carriage which is driven by yet another monkey.  In Western art, monkeys are often associated with foolish behaviour while the chicken might represent a Queen.  One interpretation suggests that the piece is possibly criticizing the defeated side of the War of Restoration (1640-1668).

The Hunting Room is a gallery dedicated to the display of a series of 17th Century panels which were originally located in the now-demolished Praia Palace in Belém.  The works depict dynamic hunting scenes with a variety of animals (mostly dogs) chasing or attacking their prey including a lion and a bull. The animals are surrounded by yellow and green decorative scrolls and acanthus leaves.  The tiles were made of maiolica (tin-glazed pottery) which was influenced by Italian Renaissance ceramics. The Leopard Hunt (1650) continues this theme while also emphasizing Portuguese taste for exoticism in distant lands.  Depicted are native hunters wielding bows and arrows and using various types of traps to capture spotted leopards.

The Lisbon Tile Museum provides a chronological history of the evolution of azulejo tiles in Portugal, starting with probably the oldest tiles dating back to the 14th to 15th centuries which once covered the floor of Leiria Castle in Leiria Portugal.  Shaped like green stars and honey-coloured crosses, the tiles fit together to form a “chessboard-like design”.  In the early 16th Century, Muslim influence resulted in tile panels that simulated Muslim tapestries, decorated with patterns that looked like sparkling night stars from afar.  In the 17th Century, patterns resembling camellia flowers were actually inspired by Oriental porcelain decorated with peonies.  This type of pattern was usually found in areas dedicated to the Virgin Mary.  In late 17th Century, designs for works were created based on etchings, such as “Fisher of Hearts” (1697) by Gabriel del Barco, which was an allegory to the month of March, based on an engraving from Henri Bonnart representing the 12 months of the year.  Tiles of “Individual Figures” were popular from 1700-1750, featuring depictions of an entire image or scene on a single tile.  These were often made as practice tiles for apprentices before attempting more complicated patterns on multiple tiles.  This century also saw the start of satirical panels such as one from 1725 depicting a doctor administering a needle to a bare-assed patient.

The 18th century produced complex figurative tile designs that depicted religious scenes such as Saint Lawrence’s Martyrdom (1710-1730), created by Policarpo de Oliveira Bernardes for the nave of the Church of St. Lawrence.  Dutch artist Willem van der Kloet (1707) depicts the daily life of aristocracy in a palatial environment in his work titled "Dancing Lesson".  In 1790, Real Fábrica de Louça ao Rato created the equivalent of a “comic strip” in tile with his series depicting the “Story of Antonio Joaquim Carneiro, Hat Maker”.  A set of seven panels in the neoclassical style narrates the rise in society of a country lad who went to work at his uncle’s shop and learned the trade of a hatter, becoming a successful and respected businessman. Carneiro built a factory in the outskirts of Lisbon for which he had these azulejo panels created.  This is one of the first times where tiles were created for and depicted the life of a middle-classed businessman.

The 19th century was the period of industrial production where figurative azulejo works were replaced by systematic patterns used for decorating façades. There was more use of molded relief in the tiles, making some of them seem more sculptural in nature.  Styles also changed, moving from Baroque and Rococo influences towards Neoclassical and Romantic with softer colours, more delicate floral motifs and themes that reflected day to day life as opposed to merely religious or historical scenes.  Tiles started to be used for other purposes including eavestroughs, drains and waterspouts.  The use of faience (decorated tin-glazed earthenware used to make azulejo tiles) began to be applied to sculptures including an ornate table centre piece with protruding sea nymphs (1896) created by Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro.

Tiles produced in early 20th Century reflected the Art Nouveau style prevalent in those times with a focus on nature.  In 1905, Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro expanded his repertoire by creating a panel with patterns depicting butterflies flanked by red flowers and ears of corn with a pumpkin-orange background, as well as one with grasshoppers resting on two honey-coloured wheat sheafs on a light green background.  Both panels were done in relief and are 3-dimensional.  A beautiful peacock was also designed in the early 20th century.  The panel titled “Threshing of Wheat” (1920-25) depicts the traditional technique of processing wheat before it was replaced by modernization and machinery.  This panel covered the wall of a bakery.  “Lisbon in Many Colours” (1937) by Paolo Ferreira was created for the Paris Expo and depicts a panoramic view of Lisbon as seen from the Tagus River with Praça do Comércio at the centre and Rossio, Carmo Convent, Bairro Alto and other squares in the background.

Looking at items on display from the mid 20th century, there were several sculptures by Jorges Barradas that were on loan from the Museum of Chiado including a female head with flowers in her hair and a girl holding a yellow hat, both from 1945, as well as an allegorical ceramic relief panel from 1954. During this timeframe, tilework started to be used for advertising as shown in the panel created for Schweppes soft drinks (1956-65) and was displayed in public and commercial spaces.  The 1950s saw the beginning of construction of Lisbon’s subway lines, which was accompanied by a tile art project led by ceramist Maria Keil who created tile art for 17 stations between 1958-1972.  Her 1955 piece titled “The Shepherds” provided an example of her talent as she employed the chequered technique where triangular or trapezoidal-are arranged to form diagonal, checkerboard-like patterns to accent her reclining and sitting figures.

While there were no obvious examples of Keil’s Lisbon subway work in the museum, there were some by other artists.  Maria Helena Vieira da Silva’s "Philosopher" (1988) is a replica of a section displayed in the Cidade Universitária Metro Station.  Júlio Pomar’s stylistic depiction of renowned writer Fernando Pessoa (among other noted artists, poets and authors including Luís de Camões) ca be found at the Alto dos Moinhos Metro Station and was created in 1989. Julio Resende’s 1995 tilework at on Sete Rios Metro Station has been titled “Jardim Zoológico”, representing animals and lush plants in a style that has the feel of an Impressionist painting.  Other works from the 20th Century included a couple of sculptural panels including the 3-dimensional “Eyeballs” (1972) by Maria de Loudes Castro, and Querubim Lapa’s 1957 contribution to the Portuguese Pavilion at the Comptoir Suisse International Fair in Lausanne where his panel represented a mythological mermaid figure, surrounded by fish and other marine elements, in reference to Portugal’s fishing and canning industries.  In 1991, he also created a cubic pattern where the cubic shapes seem to rise as if made in relief.  This was achieved by using various types of clays and glazes in different white tones.  The black figurative moulding at the top seem to represent a snail, a sphinx and some towers being struck by lightning.  A more recent work on display was the vibrant 2001 piece of vase of flowers surrounded by bugs, butterflies, birds and a cheeky little money that is attributed to Bela Silva.

In viewing the retrospective of azulejo tiles through the centuries, as we approached the last 200 years, we saw many examples from the company Viúva Lamego, Portugal’s most historic and influential ceramics factory, which has been producing ceramic works since 1849. During our visit, the rotating special exhibition on display at the Lisbon Tile Museum celebrated the anniversary of 175 years of ceramic tile design and production at Viúva Lamego with techniques and patterns changing through the years from traditional to contemporary.  In this exhibit, we were drawn to the more contemporary works including another example of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva’s creations for the Cidade Universitária Metro Station, this time featuring stylized owls.  Another work that might have been by Maria Emília Araújo seemed like an amalgamation of Modigliani’s long neck/limbed females mixed with Picasso’s cubic forms and Van Gogh’s bedroom in Arles but made from tiles.  Other abstract faces appear pixelated up close but become more in focus as you walked further away included a representation of actress Rita Hayworth by Pedrita Studio and a female profile in blue and white (2024) by Alexandre Farto (aka Vhils).  We also Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance’s depiction of Waves (2022) made from hand-modeled, bisque-fired relief tiles which were hand painted with glazes and uniquely, displayed on the ground.

On the top floor of the museum is a monumental 23-metre-long tile panel by Spanish artist Gabriel del Barco depicts a panoramic view of Lisbon circa 1700, before the devastating 1755 earthquake.  Depicted is 14km of the city as viewed from the Tagus River, “The Great Panorama of Lisbon” serves as crucial iconographic documentation of structures that were destroyed by the earthquake such as the Royal Palace, as well as the ones that remain, including St George’s Castle, Monastry of Saint Vincente de Fora, and the Monastery and Tower of Belém.  On the far right can be seen the convent that now holds the Tile Museum.

Our final stop at the Tile Museum was in the café with an indoor space covered appropriately with food-themed azueljo tiles depicting hanging fish, fowl and other game meats.  There is also a lovely covered “Winter Garden” decorated with plants, shrubs and garden sculptures.  The café offers a range of drinks, light snacks and simple meals. We ordered cold drinks and a large fruit salad to share and rested our feet before heading back to our rental apartment.  We were very glad to have visited this museum, which gave us a better understanding about why Azulejo tiles are so important to Portugal’s history and culture and how the use, design, and subject matter of these tiles evolved through the centuries.

After 17 fun-filled days in Portugal visiting Porto, Sintra and Lisbon, it was time to head home.  We were able to make a short downhill walk to the Chiado-Baixa metro station which was so much easier with our luggage than the trek we made from the train station when arriving in Lisbon from Sintra.  The metro took us directly into the airport station with just one subway transfer so the entire journey was very smooth.  At the Aeroport Metro Station, a series of 50 caricatures of key figures from Portugal’s recent history adorned the walls.  Created by Portuguese cartoonist António Moreira Antunes, the images included pop culture icons, artists (e.g. Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro), writers (Poet Fernando Pessoa), musicians (e.g.Fado singer Amália Rodrigues), athletes (Football legend Eusébio) and other noted personalities. We became familiar with some of these names during our trip but did not know what they looked like.

Prior to boarding our flight, we were able to spend time in Lisbon’s Ana Lounge, making use of the free lounge passes that came with our credit card.  It was an uneventful flight home and at Toronto’s Pearson airport, we breezed through customs and security checks by using our recently obtained Nexxus cards for the first time.

Portugal 2024

My husband Rich and I had a 3-week vacation planned for touring Portugal from April 16-May 5, 2020, which included 5 days in Lisbon, 2 days in Sintra, 3 days Porto and a 9-day driving trip across the Douro Valley.  Our trip was carefully researched, scheduled, booked, and paid for when COVID19 shut down all travel in mid March and canceled our plans.  We waited as long as we dared while we watched the situation grow more and more dire, then reluctantly pulled the plug on our excursion.  Luckily, we canceled early enough so that we received full cash refunds for just about all our expenses including airfare from Air Canada, hotels, tour bookings, etc.  Shortly after, realizing the huge debt that it was racking up, Air Canada stopped offering cash refunds and would only issue travel credits.  Since the pandemic, we have been slower than most to ease back into air travel.  Between 2020 and 2021, we made road trips all around Ontario, visiting many beautiful little towns within 2-3 hours of Toronto that we would not have previously prioritized.  In May 2023, we booked our first flight in almost 4 years when we resumed our regular trek to New York City to watch Broadway plays.  By then, I had totally forgotten the rules and regulations of air travel and made several rookie mistakes.

Back in 2020, we were amongst the first out of all our friends and family to consider visiting Portugal.  Since then, just about everyone that we know has taken some version of the trip that we had so meticulously planned.   Now in September 2024, four and a half years since we canceled our initial plans, we have finally rescheduled our trip to Portugal with some modifications.  On this revised trip, we decided to forego the drive through the Douro Valley and concentrate on the cities, spending 5 days in Porto, 3 days in Sintra (the castle and palace town) and 7 days in Lisbon.  As a general rule, I prefer visiting fewer locations and staying longer in each of them rather than having to pack up and relocate every day.  I also like to explore each new city that I encounter in great detail, looking for quirky, off-the-beaten path sites and experiences beyond the general touristy highlights.  Having more time in each city and town would allow us the luxury to do this. And lastly, we had been frightened off by tales of how expensive car rental has become since the pandemic.  We will fly into Porto via Air Transat, take the CP national train when we head from Porto to Sintra, a suburban train to get from Sintra to Lisbon, then fly out of Lisbon via Air Transat.  We chose Air Transat because it was the only airline that had a one-way direct flight to Porto in late September.  In retrospect, this was fortunate considering there was a threat of an Air Canada pilots’ strike.  Even though the strike was resolved before our trip, it was nice to not have to worry about it at all.

In 2019, we acquired a new BMO Infinite Mastercard that gave us travel bonus points, 21-day travel health insurance and 4 free airport lounge passes per year.  Since this is our first overseas travel since the pandemic, this will be our first opportunity to take advantage of the lounge passes, or at least try to.  There was an article in the Globe and Mail recently about how airport lounges were becoming overbooked and started turning overflow people away.  Given that we have a late redeye flight to Porto, hopefully this will not apply to us.

It used to be that each time we landed in a new country, we would look for the local cell provider to buy a physical SIM card to have data access on our cell phones.  Since 2023, we switched to electronic SIM cards (e-SIMs) provided by the Airalo app and used them successfully in the United States for a fraction of the cost of the physical SIM and without the inconvenience of hunting down a physical store.  Now we will buy e-SIMs for Portugal and will load up on data since we expect to be using Google Maps quite a bit to find our way around the windy streets.  As we are away for 16 days, we decided to go for the biggest allocation of data which is 20Gigs for $44.50 Canadian.  It is slightly cheaper to go big than to incrementally top up as you run out of data.

For our accommodations at each of our three destinations, we tried to pick an apartment hotel as close to the train station as possible so that we would not have to lug our luggage that far when we arrived.  An apartment hotel is perfect for our needs since we get more living space than a hotel room and most importantly a kitchen where we can store fruit and breakfast fare for the days when we need an early start.  But it also has a hotel concierge service that can help us with luggage storage if we arrive before check-in time, and in the case of Sintra, hopefully the attendant can help us call for a taxi to bring us to the gates of the palaces prior to the start of bus service. Unfortunately, none of the places that we selected had washing machines, but at least there are drying racks and irons for some make-shift laundry in the sink.

In Porto, we will be staying in the Baixa area, just a 3-minute walk from the beautiful Sao Bento train station, which is supposed to be a tourist attraction in its own right.  During our 5-day stay in Porto, we would be visiting each of the major areas except for Bonfim, which is mostly residential.  Within Baixa, there is beautiful architecture, shops and restaurants within steps of our apartment including the large Mercado Bolhao, a bi-level food mart that is just a few minutes away. South of us is the area called Sé where we will tour major cathedrals including Bolsa Palace, Church of Sao Francisco, and Cathedral of Se.  Continuing further south to Ribeira, we will explore the waterfront shops and restaurants on both sides of the Douro River at Cais Ribeira and Cais Gaia, as well as do some port tasting in Vila Nova de Gaia where I also want to ride the funicular.  Traveling west to the BoaVista area, we will take the bus to the Serralves Art Museum and then on the way back to the hotel, stop by the Cedofeita district to walk along neighbourhoods featuring Art Nouveau buildings including Livraria Lello. On our last day in Porto, we want to stroll along the beaches in the Foz Do Douro area.  Hopefully the weather cooperates.

While at the Porto Airport, we will buy the Andante card which is Porto’s version of Toronto’s Presto card and costs less than 1 euro.  Porto transit works on zones with the cost of a ride increasing depending on the number of zones being crossed. From the airport to Sao Bento covers 4 zones so this is the ticket we will initially load on our cards.  You can only load one type of ticket (# of zones) on your card at any time.  After that, all of our trips within Porto will span 2 zones, including the final trip to get from Sao Bento to Campanha Train station where we start our trip to Sintra, so we can load the rest once we arrive at Sao Bento.

To get to Sintra, we will take the national train Comboios de Portugal (CP) from Porto Campanha station to Lisbon Oriente station, which will take just under 3 hours.  Once in Lisbon, a suburban train can take us to Sintra so we can buy the Navegante card from the Oriente train station.  Lisbon’s Navegante transit card is more encompassing than the Andante, as it covers all subways, buses, suburban trains, trams, funiculars, elevators and ferries.  There are many ways to load or use the card.  You can purchase single tickets and top up as required, buy a day pass for infinite rides on all modes of transportation within 24 hours, and other passes.  But the cheapest way to ride seems to be a term they call “Zapping” where you load some amount of money (minimum 3 Euros or increments of 5 Euros up to a maximum of 40).  The Zapping method reduces the fares of some types of rides almost by half.  If you can plan out what you may need to spend, this is the way to go.  We will try this as I want to ride on elevators, funiculars, ferries and possibly a tram in addition to the buses, subways and trains.  With zapping, you don’t need to worry about what type of tickets to load or how much it costs.  The reader will just deduct the appropriate, discounted amount when you flash the card against it.  Because the Navegante card covers suburban trains, we can use it to travel from Lisbon Oriente to Sintra and then return from Sintra to Lisbon Rossio station near where we are staying.

We have 3 days in Sintra with the first being partly a travel day where we hope to arrive from Porto by early afternoon.  This will give us enough time to check into our hotel apartment (350 metres from the train station), orient ourselves, visit the National Palace of Sintra, check out the shops in the town and have a leisurely early dinner.  For the next two days, we plan to visit Pena Palace and Grounds, Palace of Monserrate, Quinta da Regaleira and Castle of the Moors.  At this writing, all these places are closed from Sept 15-19 under threat of rural forest fires.  This would be a major blow to our plans if this remains the case during our stay 3 weeks from now, so we are busy making contingency plans just in case.  Fingers crossed that this will all be resolved by the time we arrive.  Whereas while we are in Porto, I am hoping for sunshine especially on our beach day, I wish for Sintra to get plenty of rain before we arrive!

Our 7 days in Lisbon will be filled with a wide variety of activities and modes of transportation as we plan to explore beyond the usual tourist areas.  We will be staying in Chiado at a hotel apartment a mere 350 metres from the Rossio train station, as the crow flies.  Unfortunately, we are not crows and the “short walk” involves a steep climb up multiple long flights of stairs, raising 113 metres in elevation while carrying all of our luggage!  We have been in training for the past few weeks by taking stairs whenever there is the opportunity. The area around Chiado and neighbouring Baixa are full of unique shops, restaurants and beautiful squares or pracas to explore.  We will be transiting to districts further afield including Alfama to visit St.George’s Castle, Marvila to check out the Tile Museum, Areeiro to tour the Calouste Gulbenkian Art Museum, Alcantara where we will explore the Prazeres Cemetery, Berado Art Deco Museum and LXFactory, a hip art and shopping district, and of course Belém to visit the Jeronimós Monastary and Belem Tower.  I also want to take a ferry across to Cacilhas on the other side of the River Tagus, ride the Santa Justa elevator, the Bica Funicular, and if it is not too crowded, the historic #28 Tram.  Finally on our last day of Lisbon, we will be taking a 3-hour street art walking tour that will wrap up our trip.

We are excited to finally be heading to Portugal.  Should be a great vacation if weather cooperates.