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A tale of tiles - an Iberian heritage
• 18 Oct 2007 •
A TYPICAL aspect of Iberian architecture is the ceramic tiles which decorate walls and floors in buildings throughout Spain and Portugal. The ‘azulejo’ (from the Arabic a-zala,iyi) is an extremely decorative element and comes in a multitude of varieties and designs.
Ceramic tiles are made of clay, silica, fluxes, colouring and other raw materials. Floor and wall tiles are impermeable and are normally made using a clay slab and vitreous ceramic glaze coating. These properties make them cool which lowers the temperature throughout the house, especially welcome during the hot summer months.
It is not surprising that ceramic tiles as they are known today, with their impermeable vitreous layer, were introduced to the Iberian Peninsula when the Arabs ruled Al-Andalus. The use of tiles is widely extended in North African countries and the Middle and Far East, and as well as keeping temperatures down in homes, they are easy to keep clean, thereby maintaining a more hygienic environment.
In the Middle Ages in Spain, a great many different elements, such as the rich Roman and Visigoth ceramic tradition, the technological equipment and decorative repertoire of Egyptian-Mesopotamian culture, and the aesthetic Nordic and Mediterranean contributions to the new values of the Christian world, converged to create a unique style of architecture of surprising aesthetic coherence.
The coloured glazing on tiles, green and white to begin with, was introduced by the Arabs, making it all the more decorative, and soon added metallic highlights, a technique used mainly at the time to engrave passages from the Koran in decorative Arabic scripture. A whole range of colours and designs which became progressively more complex, with meticulous geometrical shapes, became available.
In the 14th and 15th centuries unusual levels of sophistication were reached and, fed by the gold that came from Sudan, hand made tiles became an invaluable source of income being exported worldwide to rich aristocrats of the time to lavishly decorate their palaces.
The pressure of the Christians in the 15th century forced production to be transferred from Malaga to Manises, however, with a production slump towards 1500, other cities took over, especially Seville and Toledo. They created a new technique: the decoration of the main motif on the spongy square piece, which greatly facilitated laying the tiles.
The first mass production processes appeared, and in the 17th and 18th centuries, considerable advances were made in the automation of the manufacturing processes.
The eastern coast of Spain became, and remains, the main production centre. The first printed catalogues appeared, and tiles started to be available to the general public, becoming popular also in Britain and the United States. |  Return to Top
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