Photo of the Week: Tile Murals at Pinhão Train Station

The platform at Pinhão train station in the heart of the Douro Valley.

The first day of our post-TBU-conference trip certainly lived up to its name. The ‘Grapes and Sailors’ trip took us sailing up the Douro River, whose green waters wind between terraced hills covered in port wine vineyards.

The town where we boarded our boat, Pinhão, is considered by many to be the heart of the region and it has a train station that is certainly worthy of the town’s status. In fact, it is one of the most famous train stations in Portugal, mainly because of its 24 stunning murals of daily life in the Douro Valley.

These murals are made of azulejos, the beautiful blue-and-white glazed tiles that can be found across the country. I learned in Porto that these tiles actually have a very practical purpose — they are used as insulation to keep houses cool during sweltering summers. While they may have helped keep the station cool during 40C+ summer days, I believe their main purpose was for decoration (and to provide a bit of a historical record of life in the vineyards of the region). They were certainly fascinating and I could have spent much more time than I had available looking at the finer details of each of the scenes.

Here are a few other shots of the tile murals in Pinhão:

I visited Pinhão Train Station as a guest of Turismo Portugal, but all opinions written here are my own. Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to put together our post-conference trips!

About Kristin
I'm Kristin, and I'm one of the clumsiest people you'll ever meet. I've given myself a concussion by falling into a parked car in England and have broken my leg chasing a bus in Arctic Sweden. Regardless, I keep travelling the world in search of my next adventure (and my next photo opportunity). You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook.
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