Best Traditional Tile and Mosaic Craft Tour Destinations
Browse more guides: India travel | Asia destinations Best Traditional Tile and Mosaic Craft Tour Destinations Tile and mosaic craft sits at the architectural-decorative interface - work that simultaneously protects building surfaces, transmits cultural identity, and operates as art. The destinations are concentrated where these traditions have survived through cultural continuity: Portuguese azulejo (the painted-tile heritage continuing for over 500 years), Moroccan zellige (the geometric Islamic-tradition tile work), Sicilian and Roman mosaic (the late-classical mosaic tradition), Andalusian and Spanish heritage tile (continuing the Moorish-Christian crossroads tradition), and various other regional centres. I visited the Lisbon Tile Museum (Museu Nacional do Azulejo) twice and saw zellige work in Fes during a Morocco trip. Most of what's below comes from craft-tourism writers and specific tile-and-mosaic studio visits documented in their work. Where I'm passing on someon...