Museum’s Grand Atrium, opens on 29 June at 12 p.m. and remains open until 6 September

In this year’s Mountain of Culture project, the Museum of Arts and Crafts from Zagreb is presenting the fascinating exhibition “Azulejo – the Art of Portuguese Ceramic Tiles”. The exhibition’s author, Marina Bagarić, a museum advisor and director of that museum’s Ceramics Collection, Architecture Collection and Gilded Leather Collection, presented the products of Lisbon workshops from the first half of the 18th century on eleven display boards containing compositions of blue-white, glazed and painted ceramic tiles.
The history of Portuguese azulejo is tied to the visit of King Manuel I to Spain at the end of the 15th century, where he was impressed with the Hispano-Moorish palaces and decided to decorate his residence in Sintra with Spanish tile. The tiles were initially imported from Spain, but the maiolica technique was soon mastered by local craftsmen, so azulejo, thanks to the commitment of the painters who produced it, acquired the status of artworks during the 18th century. Even though azulejo was originally supposed to imitate stone mosaics, with time it became a distinctive symbol of Portuguese culture and tradition.