Made in Portugal: what to bring home from Lisbon

A guide to the Portuguese crafts and houses worth carrying home from Lisbon: azulejos, ceramics and porcelain, soaps, wool and gloves, with a directory of the makers in our guide.

Lisbon is a city where things are still made by hand, and the best of them are a joy to carry home. Tiles painted one by one, soaps in printed papers, porcelain, mountain wool, gloves cut to your hand: Portugal’s makers have kept their crafts alive, and Lisbon is their shop window.

Here is our short list of what to bring home, and where to find it, from the tile workshops to the concept stores of Príncipe Real.

Tiles and ceramics

Azulejos, the painted tiles that dress Lisbon’s façades, churches and stations, are the city’s signature. Fábrica Sant’Anna still paints its azulejos and ceramics by hand in its own factory, and sells them from its shop; Viúva Lamego makes tiles for homes, hotels and public buildings, and takes commissions.

Never buy an old tile from a street stall: antique azulejos are too often taken from buildings. A new hand-painted tile, signed by its workshop, is the better souvenir.

Bordallo Pinheiro is the house of the famous cabbage-leaf plates and ceramic swallows, designed by the artist Rafael Bordallo Pinheiro and made in Caldas da Rainha. A pair of swallows is the most Portuguese present you can give.

Porcelain

Vista Alegre has made porcelain since 1824, by its own account, and crystal too: from everyday tableware to collectors’ pieces made with artists and designers. Its Lisbon stores are the place to choose a gift that will last generations.

The best souvenir of Lisbon is something still made by hand in Portugal.

Soap, wool and gloves

Claus Porto makes soaps, colognes and candles wrapped in its celebrated printed papers, as pretty on a shelf as in the bath. Burel Factory weaves burel, the dense felted wool of the Serra da Estrela mountains, into blankets, bags and throws; its Lisbon shops are in Chiado.

For something more personal, Luvaria Ulisses is a tiny glove shop in Chiado, and Retrosaria Rosa Pomar, in Anjos, sells Portuguese wool and yarns to knitters from all over the world. For fine jewellery and silver, Leitão & Irmão makes its pieces in its own Lisbon workshops.

The concept stores

A Vida Portuguesa gathers the classic brands of Portuguese everyday life, from soaps and ceramics to tinned fish; EmbaiXada fills the Palácio Ribeiro da Cunha, a 19th-century neo-Arab palace in Príncipe Real, with Portuguese designers and makers. Between them they make the easiest afternoon of gift shopping in Europe.

Our advice

Our advice: buy tiles from the workshop, not the street; keep a corner of your case for porcelain, wrapped in a burel throw; and leave an hour for Príncipe Real, where the concept stores sit a short walk apart.