Do you know that? The tiles in the crown of Funchal’s Cathedral are among the oldest placed on the island?

Portugal started to import tiles from Spain in the 15th century, during the reign of D. Manuel I and it was this monarch who, in 1514, ordered the tiles for “Sé” tower. Because tiles were not manufactured in Portugal, they were a rare coating, only accessible to the wealthy.

The wealth from the sugar trade, the growing importance of Funchal and its elevation to city in 1508, determined the choice of the best materials and important works of art for the main temple of the Island.

These tiles, probably from Seville, are smooth and painted in one color, in this case green, blue, honey and white. The decorative impact results from the reflection of light on the glazed surface and its application in diagonal rows of different alternating colors, which gives the illusion of movement. This is the basic formula of the stubble compositions that became popular over the 16th and following centuries, in increasingly complex patterns of oblique lines that intersect in a checkerboard pattern, which is limited to two colors: white in contrast to blue, green, or, less common, black.

“Casa-Museu Frederico de Freitas” has a small sample of the tiles that crowned the Cathedral of Funchal, integrated in the collection during the restoration intervention carried out by the “Direção Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais”, in the late 80s.      

Text: Margarida Freitas