I wrote yesterday a little about the unusual sidewalks in Lisbon. Today, I have better photos.
The sidewalks in the older parts of Lisbon are made entirely of hand-hewn and hand-placed bricks. This started after the earthquake of 1755. During reconstruction, someone realized that it would be nice to honor the old city by repurposing the rubble to construct the new city. Hence, the rubble became little bricks and became the sidewalks.
Many of the sidewalks have blocks that are just cream-colored, but in other areas, the pavers got bored and started making patterns.
And at some point, they just start to show off.
The fanciest parts of town get the fanciest patterns, of course. This one is on the plaza north of the city’s triumphal arch:
This one below is a nice, geometric pattern. Easy to do with square tiles, right?
You know what, we’re better than that. LET’S DO THAT PATTERN ON A DIAGONAL.
Now that’s just showing off for the sake of showing off.
