The decay of portuguese façade azulejos – a comparaison between south Brazil and Lisbon

Abstract

The wealth of tiles in Portugal is made of more than the early patterned and the blue on white pictorial panels that cover the interior walls of churches, monasteries and palaces throughout the country and its former possessions. In the first half of the 19th century azulejo workshops found a new market in the owners of recent urban constructions, producing façade tiles widely used subsequently not only in many Portuguese towns but also in Brazil, to where they were exported in large numbers. The new urban look was not unanimously liked at its heyday but as time goes by, the old streets with shiny and often lively coloured façade walls are slowly gaining their place in the lists of municipal heritage worth preserving. However, many of those façades are showing clear signs of degradation. Whenever tiles are falling off from the façade, the overall state of disrepair can be noticed from a distance and totally detracts the aesthetic value of the site. These cases are evident. In many other instances, however, decay is only apparent on closer inspection and these are the cases that will be addressed by this communication. We present a comparative study of the most frequent types of physical decay found in 19th century façade walls in towns of the Rio Grande in South Brazil and the district of Lisbon, in Portugal, taking in consideration the similar weather conditions in both regions.