Traditional Stonework Pavement
Portuguese pavement, acknowledged in Portuguese as calçada portuguesa or calçada is a conventional-style pavement used for many pedestrian areas in Portugal. It includes small flat portions of stones organized in a sample or picture, like a mosaic.
Originally, this kind of craft is believed to have originated in Mesopotamia, where rocky materials were used in the inside and outside of constructions, being later brought to Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.
Nevertheless, the long hours and wages of calceteiros have decreased apprenticeships and thus new pavers.
Furthermore, as the pavement is less secure (gives less traction while moist; unfastened stones can come to be tripping hazards), costs extra (particularly with the issue of acquiring suitable stones), and wears quicker than concrete or asphalt, there is also dropping interest in funding and construction in it. Although there had been as soon as loads of calceteiros, most present day work is on conservation or major architectural projects.
The Portuguese pavement is the result of paving with stones of irregular or irregular shape, depending on the technique, generally white and black limestone, which can be used to form decorative patterns or mosaics by contrasting the stones of different colors. The most traditional colors are black and white, although brown and red, blue, gray and yellow are also popular.
The most common rock to establish the contrast with white limestone until the beginning of the 20th century was basalt, both in Lisbon and in other locations, with countless stone carpets still preserved with both types of rock, sedimentary and volcanic, both in the capital like all over the country. Basalt practically ceased to be used on the continent because it is more difficult to work with, which is why the rock currently most used, black limestone, is confused with volcanic rock.
The pavers take advantage of the limestone diaclases system to, with the aid of a hammer, make small adjustments to the shape of the stone, and use molds to mark the areas of different colors, so that they repeat the motifs in a linear sequence (friezes ) or in the two dimensions of the plane (patterns).
In 2021, the Portuguese pavement became inscribed in the Inventory of Portuguese Intangible Cultural Heritage.