From the moment you land at the Lisbon airport, you are surrounded by Portugal's favorite decorative art: polished, hand-painted tiles called azulejos after the Arabic al zulaycha, meaning polished stone. These tiles seem to cover everything in sight, from churches and houses to train stations and shop interiors. It was the Moors who introduced the art, having picked it up from the Persians, but the Portuguese liked it so much that they tiled everything that was flat enough and could support this decoration. 
Portugal's first 16th century tiles are Moorish, decorated with interlocking geometric or floral pattern. After the Portuguese captured Ceuta in Morocco in 1415, they began exploring the art themselves. The Italian invention of majolica, in which colors are painted directly onto wet clay over a layer of white enamel, gave the tiles a fresco-like brightness and started the Portuguese azulejo love affair.