Miles of Tiles

Seville, Spain

Ceramic tiles, everywhere you turn. On fountains. Floors. Facades. Window ledges. Rooftops. Park benches. Seville’s street signs are ceramic. Many shop signs, too. 

There are ceramic plaques on buildings that honor historic figures—and plaques with prayers and religious imagery. Walls covered with tiles in geometric patterns, and exquisite pictorial mosaics—in restaurants, pharmacies, lobbies… you name it.

Seville is famous for its glazed tiles (azulejos). It has been producing and exporting them for centuries. They are part of the ordinary everyday urban fabric, but also adorn some of the city’s grandest sites. The Real Alcazar (royal palace) is filled with extraordinary ancient tilework. Plaza de Espana is a fantasy of glazed ceramic with bridges and balustrades covered in azulejos and elaborate ceramic murals displaying scenes of Spanish history.

Seville’s ceramics give the city so much of its color, magic and unique character.