The tiles numbers are twenty thousand, date from 1905–1916 and are the work of Jorge Colaço, the most important tile painter of the time. It took eleven years to be completed. The first tiles were put up on 13 August 1905. The panels depict landscapes, ethnographic scenes as well as historical events like the Battle of Valdevez (1140), the meeting of the knight Egas Moniz and Alfonso VII of León (12th century), the arrival of King John I and Philippa of lancaster in Porto (1387) and the Conquest of Ceuta (1415).