Museu Nacional do Azulejo

This guide to the Museu Nacional do Azulejo in Lisbon opens with the 1755 earthquake that levelled Lisbon, then turns to a twenty-three-meter wall of blue-and-white tiles laid down some fifty-five years earlier by Gabriel del Barco, a Spanish artist who settled in the city in 1669. You'll hear how his tiles trace fourteen kilometres of the old waterfront, including the Royal Palace of Ribeira and churches the earthquake swallowed. Look for the grand palace at the water's edge in the tile scene, and imagine the skyline it once matched.