Tile panel: Ceramic cladding

From the middle of the 19th century, the large-scale use of tiles on the exteriors of buildings began in Portugal, with the tile production factories for cladding facades multiplying in Porto, Aveiro and Lisbon. This technique was widely used on railway station buildings. We find this valuable heritage in stations and halts across the country. It is made up of panels with landscapes and sites, scenes of traditions and customs of each region, or tiles with patterns that decorated the interior and exterior of these buildings. This is the case with this panel of blue and white tiles, from the old Contumil Station on the Minho Line. There are five panels that represent a vase of flowers, with symmetrical figures of angels on the sides.