We took the bus from the train station to the museum, but this time we went the opposite direction of town. The museum is in a former 1509 convent building with a chapel.
As the website says, this museum is unique in the world. Its collection of five centuries of decorative ceramic tiles traces the history of their design and provides information on how they were made.
When we arrived we were graciously met by a woman who gave us some advice as to what to see and how to go through the facility. She was very nice and seemed thrilled to see Americans and to use her English.
These first few pictures are of some very early tiles. The Moorish influence is all over Portugal as it is in Spain, but the Portuguese took the craft and developed it over time to make they own.
This is the first example I have of painted tiles that make a picture as opposed to a pattern.
This is a close up of the center panel.
That was at the end of a hall, but in the gallery off the hall, there were more individual tiles that made patterns. These were salvaged from buildings.
They are incredibly beautiful.
This group was amazing to me, no matter what the angle.
This pattern is similar to the one above the optical illusion panel, but not the same.
These borders were fun.
This tiled turret caught my eye.
Now back inside. This is a fun combination of painted and patterned tiles.
More painted.
More patterned in the mini-cloister.
This is an area where they were sorting some salvaged tiles. Trout said he would love to do this job. He'd be very good at it, too.
This was in a room filled with scenes of dogs going after bigger animals. I chose this one to shoot.
This was the only cat scene, going after a rat.
This was a fun series of painted tiles.
This is not a period I care much for in art or fashion, but the big tile picture is pretty impressive.
I don't want to know what this "doctor" is doing here.
This is a full scene of a harbor.
This was the only 3-dimensional ceramic work that got my attention. It's a magnificent creche.
This was in the side of a window opening. The walls of the building are very thick.
This looks like a Portuguese exploration picture, somewhere in the tropics.
The museum also displays more current tilework. These are early 20th century. I loved them, even though their raised nature would require lots of dusting.
These are also beautiful. Click and look closely to see what the images actually are.
I think these were from the 1930's.
And this piece is very recent.
We finished with the museum and came down to exit. The cafe was closed, but I had to take a picture of the tiles at its serving bar. These are old and a great way to show what the shop had to sell.
I needed to hit the bathroom before leaving. When I came out, the woman who was so nice to us when we arrived, grabbed us and told us there was a special presentation with kids in the chapel and that we could go see it if we wanted. That was the surprise.
I had taken pictures of the chapel and was intrigued by its elaborate style and the blue and white tile scenes on the walls.
But I couldn't figure out what those things were on the altar. An octopus? A stingray?
There was a tour there at the time. It was in French and I caught a little of what the guide was saying, but got nothing about the stuff on the altar.
When the docent told us about the presentation, she pointed down the hall. We could see some kids in Viking helmets and we were sold. We thought we were too late to get inside, but the kids were just getting organized.
Yes, there were Vikings and Mexicans and Russians and ???
Finally some adults guided us through the kids and we were able to stand/sit in the very back of the chapel on the side. That was fine because I could get some pictures from there, although many are blurry.
As it turned out, the theme of the pageant was all the peoples of the world seeing King Neptune on his throne. Here we have some Chinese.
I loved this little kid. He was so excited to see the groups come in.
These were the Native Americans.
As each group came in, they played music appropriate for them. The Mexicans were the most popular. They got the biggest applause complete with people clapping in time to the music.
All the groups did something typical in front of King Neptune. The Vikings had a fight up on the stage.
Those kids that I labeled ??? were from outer space.
After it was over, the kids paraded back out, sort of in order.
People in the audience had a great time, especially the kids. It was definitely a family event.
They were hanging out with the costumed kids as well as each other. One of the great things about this performance is that kids with mental and physical challenges were integrated in the performing groups along with kids who didn't have those issues.
By this time it was getting pretty late. We went out to the bus stop and joined some of the museum employees waiting to go home. We took in so much in such a short period of time there, I can't even remember if we went out to eat that night or just stopped at the grocery and took something home.
