Azulejo

Azulejo(en.wikipedia.org)

190 points by Amorymeltzer 47 days ago | 64 comments

Doing a little activism here: please don't buy old ones while visiting Portugal/Spain/etc., as they are commonly stolen goods. Thanks, from Lisbon.

asimovDev 45 days ago | |

I just googled it and apparently these are often chipped of historical buildings and sold as tourist souvenirs. Thanks for informing us

jcmfernandes 45 days ago | | |

Indeed, it's sad. They are staple here in Portugal, covering entire buildings. Beautiful examples: https://maps.app.goo.gl/3BK1BoMVsgRY38eG8 and https://maps.app.goo.gl/fquP923g13xtbSxU8

santiagobasulto 45 days ago | |

I'll take advantage of your domain knowledge :) Where's the best place to find local artists that produce them?

world2vec 45 days ago | | |

Viúva de Lamego is not a "local" artist per se but they're a leading artisanal workshop in classic and contemporary Portuguese tiles. If you have the budget, their tailor-made tiles are something else, imagination is the limit. (source: my dad does a lot of house restorations in Portugal and some require custom tiles to fill in missing/damaged areas)

fcatalan 45 days ago | | |

In Spain, if you drive 1 h 20 minutes southwest of Madrid you get to Talavera de la Reina, which is a town all about ceramic and pottery:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talavera_de_la_Reina

jcmfernandes 45 days ago | | |

I would love to help, but it's not my domain. I, unfortunately, witness the side-effects of people stealing them on my day to day. There are many shops in Lisbon that sell them, and there's even a beautiful museum here that it's definitely worth visiting (or signing up for a workshop!): https://museunacionaldoazulejo.gov.pt - it's currently closed for renovation; it should reopen later this year, but that's yet to be confirmed.

When buying - on the streets or in a shop - if it looks old, unless provenance is absolutely clear, please don't.

jmorenoamor 45 days ago | | |

You will find great artista in Spain and Portugal. I can recommend you Talavera de la Reina in Toledo, Spain. It has a centuries old tradition of producing quality ceramics.

andrewl-hn 45 days ago | |

Meanwhile there are many masters that make these tiles today - I know one personally! - and they all struggle to find clients.

senko 46 days ago |

Azul[0] is a great board game inspired by this style.

Easy to start, can get quite complex, heartily recommended!

[0] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/230802/azul

ustad 45 days ago | |

2 player can lead to fist fights.

dgellow 46 days ago | |

I love it, still my favorite game after all those years, there is so much depth with such a simple mechanic.

Whenever I want to play with a game engine I reimplement a version of it

tchalla 46 days ago | |

It really gets complex in a 4 player version and if also if you play thr version where the colors of the tiles are not set on the board. Fun game!!

s20n 46 days ago |

I assumed the word was derived from "azul" but from the article, it's apparently derived from the Arabic الزليج (al-zillīj) and has no relation with "azul"

txbrown 45 days ago | |

Portuguese here - many Portuguese words have origin from Arabic as Portugal has been conquered and occupied by "the Moors" in 8th~13th century. That's a long time! Alentejo, Aljezur, Algarve, and many of the cities in the Southern part of the country have have Arabic origins.

portugueasey 45 days ago | | |

So much so that the controversy over the use of “insha’Allah” by non-Muslims was missed by me, Portuguese has “oxalá”, and I could not understand the problem. It’s funny how many words we use in Portuguese and Spanish that have their origin in the Moorish time.

a34729t 45 days ago | | |

And the surname "matamoros"!

lookeey 46 days ago | |

interestingly, apparently "azul" also comes from the arabic "lāzuward"

vasco 46 days ago | | |

I always thought it came from lapis lazuli (portuguese). Azul as a subpar of Lazuli even sounds exactly the same in portuguese.

senadir 45 days ago | |

The arabic word for "azul" is أزرق (azraq) so they all look pretty adjacent.

Laurel1234 45 days ago | | |

Azul 100% comes from Arabic (well Persian, but through Arabic), although I think the specific Andalusian form that was borrowed was a bit different from that.

Laurel1234 45 days ago | |

This wikipedia article, the wiktionary entry for Portuguese, and the Spanish wiktionary entry all have different etymologies lmao.

As a Spanish speaker it seems really hard to believe it's not azul + -ejo. They're literally blue.

ricardobeat 45 days ago | |

Even more confusing since they are indeed often blue and white, like other ceramics.

voxleone 45 days ago |

Azulejos are still a staple in Brazilian architecture. It is a common wall covering in clean areas like bathrooms, kitchens, hospitals.

jwrallie 45 days ago | |

This is one of those words that can sound exotic, but for the locals would be so plain and uneventful to hear. Kinda like all the Japanese words being used for software project names on Github.

jventura 45 days ago | |

What you call azulejos is basically tilings, which are mostly tiles with geometric patterns (or just a color) covering an area. Azulejo, in the "strict" portuguese (of Portugal) sense are usually a painting in the tiles (not on each individual tile, but on the whole). Mostly a work of art, yes..

By the way, there is also another "infrastructure" element that is used as art in Portugal - calçada portuguesa [1], which is also very interesting.

[1] https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal%C3%A7ada_portuguesa

diego_moita 45 days ago | |

It is staple but not an art. They're just tilings.

What the Spanish, Moroccan and Portuguese do with azulejos / zellij is miles ahead. It is intricate, complex and beautiful.

Those countries just take the think into crazy high levels of beauty. Brazilian azulejos are not in the same league.

To say that Brazilian azulejos are the same as the Moroccan/Spanish/Portuguese is like saying that a Ferrari Testarosa is the same thing as a VW Beetle (Fusca), that a Fugue by Bach is the same thing as Funk Carioca, that a Crepe Suzette is the same thing as a pancake with orange jelly: technically correct but still absolutely wrong.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=zellij+morocco&sxsrf=APpeQns...

[2] https://www.google.com/search?q=azulejo+sevillano&udm=2&sxsr...

stronglikedan 45 days ago |

> but also had a specific function, such as aiding temperature control in homes.

How? Why even mention it without a blurb about what that even means?

ricardobeat 45 days ago | |

Ceramic tiles make rooms colder, which makes them popular in warm climates. They reflect heat, are decent insulators and prevent temperature swings.

aaroninsf 45 days ago | |

Came here looking for this comment.

Especially given its occurrence in the summary paragraph, that is a strong claim and I would like to know more.

Some googling turns up social media links expanding on this claim ("reflective and insulating") but not immediately anything authoratative.

ajb 45 days ago | |

Indeed, I would be interested to know if this was more than just albedo.

brunoborges 45 days ago |

Amazing how an article from Wikipedia easily trends on HN for no good reason, while many posts go unseen under the [new] tab.

1bpp 45 days ago | |

I think this fits nicely under the guidelines of "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" a lot more than all of the AI marketing blogspam over there.

brunoborges 45 days ago | | |

Nah, this has way more to do with karma points than with "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity".

I've seen submissions by original authors not trending, but then someone with enough karma points booming the same article in a second submission, and then folks having to adjust or point to the original submission to give the proper credit (and karma points) to the author.

Visiting [newest] always has a handful of entries that are genuinely interesting, but never trend. At all.

I challenge HN team to bring one to three random entries from [newest] into the [news] (trending) page as an exercise.

brunoborges 45 days ago | |

Note: I meant [newest]

jmorenoamor 45 days ago | |

Well, being able to chat about arts and culture is a nice surprise in the current sea of AI slop.

anthk 45 days ago |

Also they are easier to clean in a bathroom/kitchen.

leflambeur 45 days ago |

I use Zellij and only recently had a colleague tell me that the name comes from Arabic and had not made the link to "Azulejo". It makes sense of course, considering they all refer to some form of tiling :)

agilestoic 45 days ago |

Why does a random Wikipedia article gets bumped so high here? :D

bravura 45 days ago |

I’ve been curious for a while the cheapest way to create a small run of azulejo tiles with printed design and very strange (puzzle piece like) shapes

725686 45 days ago |

I just visited Lisbon, and their azulejos are fantastic. We also have great examples in Mexico. But, why was this posted in HN?

rubslopes 45 days ago | |

I'm always puzzled how ordinary Wikipedia pages make the front page. There must be some rare planetary alignment that gets so many people to upvote something that is plain and ordinary.

To be clear, this isn't about azulejos specifically. I'm just talking about the pattern in general, whatever the topic.

0xDEAFBEAD 45 days ago | | |

HN is aggressively moderated. Certain types of stories which are popular on other social medias get limited or zero frontpage time on this site. That allows for niche curiosity stuff to bubble up.

badc0ffee 45 days ago |

I visited Colonia del Sacramento on a day trip from Buenos Aires, and I remember these beautiful tiles all over the old town.

inigyou 46 days ago |

Is this related to a Forgejo

sav_m 46 days ago | |

I've read somewhere Forgejo comes from esperanto.

statox 46 days ago | | |

You might have read that from their [faq](https://forgejo.org/faq/)

> Forgejo (pronounced /forˈd͡ʒe.jo/) is inspired by forĝejo, the Esperanto word for forge.

augusto-moura 45 days ago | |

Nope, not at all, very different etymologies

inigyou 45 days ago | | |

Forgejo running on Azure

aanet 45 days ago |

TIL: that Azulejo and zellig (zillig) have similar roots.

smel 45 days ago |

Zellij is Moroccan from Fes, Morrocans bring it to Iberia

Angostura 45 days ago |

Annoying article in that sentence 2 mentions temperature control and that’s the last mention

slfnflctd 45 days ago | |

I also wanted to see more about the temperature control aspect and was scanning the article for it. Some quick additional searching elsewhere turned up possible effects such as reflective surfaces, thermal mass, and moisture buffering.

jwrallie 45 days ago | | |

More of direct experience instead of a scientific explanation, but it feels cold to the touch. I would guess it is related to thermal conductivity.