Pináculos de Azulejos

Pináculos de azulejos are ceramic finials that decorate rooftops of many buildings in Seville, Spain. They are delightful, usually colorful, fluffs of decoration that surround rooftop edges.

I’m told by a local ceramics expert that these types of ceramic decorative pieces were made in large numbers in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when ceramic producers thrived in Seville. I saw examples on rooftops everywhere in Seville (some colorful, others a more modest white or blue-on-white).

The culmination of this ceramic production was incorporated into the Plaza de Espana, built for the 1929 Iberia-American Exposition.

After the 1920s, decorative ceramic production in Seville began a slow descent. Large-scale ceramic factories closed, one-by-one. Now none are left, although individual potters are again sprouting up in Triana (a district of Seville).