As Portugal lost its colonies around the globe, the country’s nearly six centuries of influence ensured a legacy of distinctive decorative style: delicate filigree jewellery, colourful azulejo tiles, intricate wrought-iron work and black-and-white patterned stone sidewalks and plazas.

Those limestone surfaces are pedestrian objects in more ways than one: made to be trampled on, day in and day out, in places like Macau and Rio de Janeiro. “They are a carpet that people don’t always notice,” says Luísa Dornellas, director of the Escolas de Jardinagem e Calceteiros, the schools of gardeners and stone pavers.