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The Beautiful Azulejo Walls at the Saõ Bento Station

Rather unusually, it's not a museum that has some of the most stunning azulejo murals, nor any building destined to serve cultural purposes...
It's actually an old train station!

The São Bento Railway Station has an entrance hall with large blue painted styles from the early 20th century.

The azulejos depict scenes from Portugal's history.

The São Bento Railway Station was built in 1916 and still serves its original purpose.

Still, the entrance hall tends to fill up with visitors coming from all over the World. It is one of Porto's main attractions.

The name of the station comes from a Benedictine monastery's name. The 16th century religious building burned down in 1783, it was rebuilt at the end of the 19thcentury.

But, eventually this station was constructed at its spot.

Architecturally, the São Bento station is French Beaux Arts-inspired, designed by Portuguese architect, José Marques da Silva.

But I intended this article to be about the tiles, so hopefully the photos will serve this purpose.

There are 20 thousand tiles in the vestibule (hall at the entrance), dating from 1905-1916, created by Jorge Colaço, a renowned azulejo artist.

The scenes on the azulejo murals depict historical events like the Battle of Valdevez (1140), the Conquest of Ceuta (1415), they show kings and also landscapes.

Want to see more azulejos?

I recommend you to visit Porto's churches, the Azulejo Museum in Lisbon.

Otherwise, the city of Porto is indeed, one of the best places for seeing azulejos.

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