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The azulejos in the Capela de São Roque (Saint Roch Chapel) in the church of the same saint, in Lisbon, are justly considered one of the major majolica works made anywhere during the last quarter of the 16th century[1]. The earliest known surviving ensemble of Portuguese manufacture signed and dated, (“Francisco de Matos / 1584”) has long puzzled art historians mostly because their magnificence seems to have sprouted literally by spontaneous generation with no predecessors and few immediate s...

The azulejo panel called Painel de Nossa Senhora da Vida (Panel of Our Lady of Life), once applied to a chapel in the now demolished Igreja de Santo André (Saint Andrew) near the Igreja da Graça in Lisbon, numbers among the earliest known references to azulejos from the 16th century in Portuguese architecture. The church had a gothic architecture with a main chapel and four small side chapels. The two chapels from the south side were dedicated to Saint Ambrosius and to Our Lady of Life, while...

Among the first known references to azulejos from the 16th century integrated in Portuguese architecture is the so-called panel of Nossa Senhora da Vida (“Our Lady of Life”), belonging to a chapel of the now demolished Igreja de Santo André, near the Convento da Graça. These azulejos were already labelled in the important work Santuário Mariano (1707), a collection of books by Fr. Agostinho de Santa Maria (1642-1728) who aimed to describe all the churches and chapels dedicated to the Virgin M...

After the panels of Capela de São Roque in Lisbon, signed and dated, the incomplete and dispersed panels in Igreja da Graça are the second set of signed Renaissance azulejos produced in Lisbon that were found. A selection of azulejo units from the panels has now been studied by scanning-electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS). The tiles making up the book bearing the signing monogram have been used to establish a morphological and analytical template aimed ...

During the past three years a research group including the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (Portuguese National Azulejo Museum), the Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil and the HERCULES Laboratory of the University of Evora, acquired X-ray fluorescence spectra of the glazes of azulejo panels on site and single tiles from the collections of the Museum. That data was recently complemented by spectra obtained with the micro-analysis unit of a scanning electron microscope and with the AGLAE proton...

During the year starting on July 2017, the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (Portuguese National Azulejo Museum), the Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil and the HERCULES Laboratory of the University of Evora made a joint effort in the instrumental study of 16th century Portuguese azulejos, aimed at establishing their origin, technology used and eventual systematization of workshop productions. The microscopic observation of the biscuits did not reveal any signs of mixtures of clays, as are rou...

Azulejos (Portuguese glazed tiles) suffer from pathologies such as glaze fissures and glaze loss particularly as a result of exposure to wall moisture and weathering. Many tile panels need conservation measures, including the treatment of lacunae but there is currently a lack of efficient and long-lasting solutions. Lasers offer a number of unique advantages including for the study and conservation of cultural heritage. In the conservation/restoration field, up to now the attention of the sc...

In this article some aspects of the production technology connected with the preparation of the glaze and of the biscuit and with the firing cycle have been researched in order to better understand their effects on the morphological and chemical characteristics of the glaze and glaze-biscuit interface. Azulejo reproductions have been prepared by using raw and fired ceramic bodies glazed with either a lead-tin raw preparation or with a frit of different quartz grain sizes. The firing temperatu...

During the last year, the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (MNAz- Portuguese National Azulejo Museum), the Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC) and the HERCULES Laboratory of the University of Evora made a joint effort in the instrumental study of 16th century faience azulejos, aimed at identifying those of Portuguese origin based on their composition and the technology used and thus establish on firmer ground the origins of the production of faience azulejos in Lisbon towards a candidacy...

With the increasing international appreciation of Portuguese azulejos, spurred not only by the acknowledgement of their integration in Baroque architecture as a unique heritage, but also by the continued use of painted tiles that spans to this day, azulejos have been a subject of interest and research. The technology of manufacture, the forms of decay and the materials and techniques for restoration have been studied for pre-20th century azulejos. However, such studies did not encompass moder...

In this article considerations regarding the importance of recovering and protecting the knowledge of azulejo production techniques are elaborated. A tentative overview of the Portuguese azulejo production system is made. The method of knowledge transfer through oral dissemination and learning “by observing and executing/imitating” is noted. A comparison is made with the Dutch case, where a larger amount of tangible historic information exists – namely technical treatises and potter’s books -...

Aloïs Riegl in The Modern Cult of Monuments, originally published in 1903, was one of the first to ascribe a historical value to the results of a technology when he stated that even a torn-off slip of paper with a short unimportant note contains historical value for the development of paper manufacturing, script and writing materials. Glazed ceramic tiles (azulejos in Portuguese) are widely appreciated and studied for their artistic content. Their historical value is dully recognized but res...

Several books have presented and discussed the use of azulejos in the Portuguese modern architecture. However, these tend to ignore the full use of glazed ceramics in the same context. This is probably because in many cases the azulejos are plain and undecorated, or due to the fact that the glazed elements are not considered actual azulejos, or that their importance in terms of percent of area is low. The authors believe that all cases are worth mentioning and thus present, for the first time...

Neste relatório é apresentada a apreciação final do Estudo Prévio das fundações e estruturas da plataforma e reforço complementar do Terminal Fluvial sul e sueste no que respeita à segurança antissísmica. São avaliados os aspetos relacionados com o modelo geotécnico considerado pelos autores do Estudo Prévio, com as metodologias de análise de segurança dos taludes em situações de projeto sísmicas e com as interferências com as infraestruturas do Metropolitano de Lisboa no Terreiro do Paço. É ...

During the 19th century azulejos started to be used mostly in urban façades, a novel application that opened the way for the “faience towns”. However, by the late 1930s, the azulejos were considered something outdated, unworthy of integration in the modern architecture. Later, with the reintroduction of the azulejo in the Brazilian modern architecture during the 1940s, which assumed an important role as a regional mark rooted in a prestigious history, the young Portuguese architects started i...

There are several books about the use of modern azulejos in Portugal, often centering in well known cases by renowned artists or more "spectacular" applications. Spread throughout Portugal (and not only in Lisbon) there is an important heritage of modern tiled shopfronts that are often neglected and therefore face silent destruction as the shops are passed on to new owners and different branches of business. This communication presents a number of modern shopfronts, survivors from a lost er...

Several books present and discuss the use of azulejos in Portuguese modernist architecture. However, these tend to ignore the use of other glazed ceramics of uncertain classification in the same context. Through the process of identification of modern azulejos in Portugal, a new type of glazed ceramic lining has been found which may arguably be classified as azulejos. These are flat glazed ceramic mosaics with a module of 20 x 40 mm akin to azulejos. The only difference from what we usually u...

O Projeto «Reabilitar como Regra», criado pela Resolução de Conselho de Ministros n.º 170/2017, teve como objetivo elaborar propostas para adequar as normas técnicas da construção às exigências e especificidades da reabilitação de edifícios. No domínio da segurança contra incêndios, a intervenção sobre edifícios existentes pode dispensar o cumprimento de algumas disposições da legislação em vigor, mediante a adoção de métodos de análise que evidenciem ser atingido um adequado nível de seguran...

Descrevem-se os impactes da sobrecarga dos veículos pesados (peso bruto e carga por eixo) na durabilidade da infraestrutura (pavimentos e obras de arte), na operação das rodovias (capacidade, níveis de serviço e segurança rodoviária), na economia (custos do transporte), bem como no ambiente (emissões aéreas).