The Moors ruled parts of Andalucia from the early 8th until the late 15th centuries – 800 years of history and they left behind many legacies including their art and one area of that are the tiles that are still popular today here in southern Spain. Examples of Andalucian tiles can be seen almost everywhere and my home is no exception! Our entrance hall has half tiled walls and a tiled floor. All of our walls and floors are tiled but the hallway is the best example of the Andalucian design.
This photo is looking towards the street, we have wood and glass 'internal' front doors and approx one and half metres beyond these are the actual doors which open right on to the street. (Pavement in England or the sidewalk in the USA). We don't have any front garden and this is pretty typical for white towns and villages across southern Spain.
This area of the house gets a lot of natural sunlight when the 'main' front doors are open, which is most of the day and early evening, so is ideal for plants....although ours are currently in the garden.
The ceilings are very high and although this corner cabinet, below, looks tiny, it is actually about 6 foot tall! I display my Lladro ornaments in this corner, keeps them safely out of the way of the dogs!
Below are a couple more examples of Moorish art painted on this large wall plate and the green vase standing in the corner:
The wall tiles below show a row of 'border' tiles as well as a row of raised 'rope' tiles.
Finally the floor tiles, which are a mottled beige/sand colour interspersed with smaller (approx 6" x 6") patterned tiles, which by Andalucian standards are quite plain but I think they work perfectly with the very 'busy' wall tiles and are easy to keep clean!
I hope you've enjoyed seeing this little bit of Andalucian tile art. If you want to see lots of beautiful examples then there are some gorgeous photos here:
Andalucian Tiles
I hope you will all have a lovely week ahead!
