lisbon in tiles

It got to the point during my wandering, where I was snapping photos of tiles nearly every ten steps. Lisbon is a city of unexpected colour combinations which somehow work harmoniously together— salmon and cerulean, saffron and bordeaux. Many of the city's buildings are tiled in mesmerizing patterns, which naturally pulled me to extract my camera from my bag, with oooohs and aahhhhhs.



Turkey has a rich ceramic and tile tradition, with gorgeous cobalts and floral motifs, that I can't help but wonder why there aren't more buildings covered in tiles. The fairly new Hacıosman metro station has massive panels of stunning Iznik tiles which feature the çintemani motif, a pattern of three circles, representing royalty and power. I imagine the cost of tiling entire metro stations would be astronomical, but it's just so lovely— and what a way to keep a tradition current.