Tile detail in the Museo Nacional do Azulejo, Azulejos Museum.

Museu Nacional do Azulejo

Top choice in Lisbon


Housed in a sublime 16th-century convent, Lisbon's Museu Nacional do Azulejo covers the entire azulejo (hand-painted tile) spectrum. Star exhibits feature a 36m-long panel depicting pre-earthquake Lisbon, a Manueline cloister with web-like vaulting and exquisite blue-and-white azulejos, and a gold-smothered baroque chapel.

Here you'll find every kind of azulejo imaginable, from early Ottoman geometry to zinging altars, scenes of lords a-hunting and Goan intricacies. Bedecked with food-inspired azulejos – ducks, pigs and the like – the restaurant opens onto a vine-clad courtyard.


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