Whole church walls in blue and white, painted with saints and stories. Four of the best stand a short walk apart, and one more hides 300 kilograms of gold inside.
Azulejos came to Portugal from Moorish Spain and grew into a national art. Porto covered its churches in them, many in the early 20th century.
The side wall of the Carmo, beside Livraria Lello, is one vast panel from 1912. Santo Ildefonso, above Batalha square, wears Jorge Colaço's tiles of 1932. The Congregados faces São Bento station.
On Rua de Santa Catarina, the Capela das Almas is wrapped in nearly 16,000 tiles from 1929, showing the lives of St Francis and St Catherine.
For contrast, the Gothic Igreja de São Francisco near the river hides an interior where some 300 kilograms of gold leaf cover the baroque woodwork.
About two kilometres, west to east, then down to the river.
Stand back across the street for the full height of the tiled wall.
The narrow tiled front squeezed in beside São Bento station.
Climb the steps for Colaço's blue panels around the doors.
The most photographed corner in Porto, tiled on every side.
End inside the gilded church, then out to the Ribeira.
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Start at the Carmo by the university, near Clérigos; end near the Ribeira.
São Francisco charges for its church and museum; the others are free when open.
Buy reproductions from shops; never antique tiles, which are often stolen from buildings.
Porto practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
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