A museum inside the work it displays
The Museu Nacional do Azulejo keeps the history of an art that, in Portugal, never left the walls.
Few museums can say they live inside the work they study. The Museu Nacional do Azulejo is housed in the Convent of Madre de Deus, founded by Queen Leonor in 1509, and the building is itself the first piece of the visit.
Created in 1965 and made a national museum in 1980, its mission is to make known the history of azulejo in Portugal, protecting and promoting an artistic expression that sets Portuguese culture apart.
The collection follows that history from the mid-15th century to contemporary creation, and also brings together ceramics, porcelain and faience from the 16th to the 21st centuries. Alongside the chronological route there is a section devoted to materials and manufacturing techniques — how a tile is made, before understanding what it tells.
From the 16th-century convent we still have the Mannerist cloister, the church entirely lined with tiles, the sacristy, the upper choir with gilded woodwork and the Baroque Chapel of Saint Anthony. Seeing azulejo here means seeing it in the place it was made for — installed, aged and transformed along with the building itself.
During the works, the collection keeps circulating: at Palácio da Calheta, with the Open Azulejo project, and at Palácio Foz, where the museum shop has reopened.