Lisbon-style slope at dusk

In Portuguese Wikipedia's account, the tiled façade had a strong presence in the Romantic period, and Lisbon was its largest market. The idea that the taste came from Brazil is contested. The main factories of the second half of the 19th century were in Lisbon (Roseira, Calçada do Monte, Viúva Lamego) and in Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia (Santo António do Vale da Piedade, Massarelos, Carvalhinho, Devesas). Semi-industrial methods such as stencilling were used, which brought the price down: the Lisbon tourism board notes that throughout the 19th century cheaper patterned tile covered thousands of façades.

Museu Nacional do Azulejo texts say that from the mid-19th century the taste for covering façades lent colour and rhythm to the austere urban landscape, and that the Roseira factory in Lisbon produced a large part of the stamped faience tiles. They also say the fashion was a way of telling apart buildings that were otherwise indistinguishable, and that some northern factories stood out for relief forms, with stronger light and shadow. Criticism, based mostly on satires by novelists, was less widespread than once thought; what bothered critics was how patterns were combined, where they were placed, their excess, and their adoption by the newly rich and the middle class.