Under Our Feet

Studying and analysing the pavements in a city as old as Lisbon is a way of getting to know the city itself. In this exhibition, the Museum of Lisbon addressed a little-explored topic: the techniques, materials, shapes, compositions and colours used to clad the ground on which we walk from pre-history to the early 20th century, observing the patterns present in Portuguese pavements.

The paving methods used in Lisbon changed over time and recount different parts of the city’s history. In the diachronic analysis carried out in this exhibition, it is clear that many paving methods were tried, tested and appraised, while others were adopted much more casually.