Caldas da Rainha Ceramics

Caldas da Rainha grew around a thermal hospital founded by Queen Leonor in 1485, and it developed a pottery industry on the local clay. Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, the caricaturist who also created Zé Povinho, took over a factory here in 1884 and made it the centre of Portuguese ceramic art: naturalistic majolica in the manner of Palissy, with lizards, frogs, snakes and crabs modelled in relief, and above all the cabbage-leaf tableware that is still produced and is instantly recognisable in Portuguese homes. The factory still operates and the Museu Bordallo Pinheiro shows the range. The town's other ceramic tradition is the louça das Caldas in its cruder sense - novelty pieces, many explicitly phallic, sold openly in the daily market and shops, a long-standing local line that surprises visitors who came for the cabbages.

What you actually see

• The cabbage ware - Bordallo Pinheiro's leaf tableware, still in production.
• The Palissy-style majolica - lizards, frogs and crabs modelled in relief.
• The museums - the Bordallo Pinheiro museum and the ceramics collections.
• The novelty ware - the town's frankly phallic line, sold openly in the market.

When to go

Year-round. Two to three hours. The fruit and vegetable market in the Praça da República runs every morning and is the town's other draw.

Honest expectations

The novelty pottery is explicit and displayed without warning in shops and the market. Museum hours vary and some close on Mondays. Factory tours are not routinely available. The town is otherwise unremarkable.

Nearby

Óbidos is a short drive south; Foz do Arelho and the lagoon are west.