Seven images, all 1000 pieces, all of Portuguese places: that is Olivo's Imagens de Portugal collection. Foreign cities fill the ranges of the Spanish and Italian brands, but Portuguese images are rare, so this is the place to start if you want to buy a jigsaw puzzle of Portugal for a son in Paris, a sister in Luxembourg or German friends who spent their holidays here.
Buy a jigsaw puzzle of Portugal: Olivo's seven images
All of them have 1000 pieces and are recommended from age 14. What changes is the image, and with it the place where the puzzle gets stuck. We put this table together with the recipient in mind.
| Puzzle | What it shows | Where it gets hard |
|---|---|---|
| Rabelo Boat | A rabelo boat on the Douro, with the colourful houses of Porto's Ribeira reflected in the water | The reflection: the house colours repeat in the water, more washed out |
| Pena Palace | Sintra's yellow and red towers against a sunset sky | The graded sunset sky |
| Vineyards | Terraced vines running down the slope, with the river below and a blue sky | The rows of vines, very similar to each other |
| Yellow Façade | Sash windows, iron balconies and flower pots on an old house | The yellow wall between the windows |
| Lighthouse | A stone lighthouse at the end of a pier, with an orange and pink sky and a calm sea | The sea and the graded sky |
| Surf | A giant Atlantic wave with a surfer mid-drop | The white foam |
| Wine Cellar | Rows of wine barrels in an old cellar, with dark wood and warm light | The repeated barrels and the dark tones |
If the person has never done a 1000 piece puzzle, the Yellow Façade and the Rabelo Boat move along most steadily: there is always a window, a balcony or a different house to hold on to. The Lighthouse and the Wine Cellar are for people with some practice.
For someone living abroad
You do not give an emigrant just any monument. You give them the place they are from, or the closest thing to it. Anyone from Porto or who grew up along the Douro recognises the rabelo at once. The Vineyards mean a lot to someone who spent summers picking grapes on their grandparents' land, and the Yellow Façade, with its iron balconies and pots on the windowsill, could be a street in Lisbon or in any old Portuguese town.
That is several evenings looking at a picture of home, and when it is done it is the kind of puzzle you glue and hang. We have a guide on that on the blog: how to frame a puzzle.
For a foreign friend who enjoyed their stay
Here the choice is different, because they know Portugal as visitors. The images that work are the ones they saw with their own eyes: Pena Palace, for those who went to Sintra, and the Rabelo Boat, for those who took the Douro cruise. Surf is a good bet for those who came for the sea, with that giant wave that recalls the ones on our coast.
The boxes in this collection measure 22.5 x 28 x 5.8 cm. They fit easily in cabin luggage, which helps if you are visiting Portugal and want to take the gift back with you.
If your friend likes travel puzzles in general, there are more cities in our cities and travel puzzles collection, but these seven are the Portuguese ones.
And for those of us here
Some people buy one for themselves. The Wine Cellar makes sense for people who keep a wine collection at home or work with wine, and the Lighthouse for those who live by the sea and love a sunset. Either way, it is a picture that will stay on the living room wall, so choose by taste, not by ease.
Sending it straight abroad
If the person lives in Europe, there is no need to go to the post office: we ship from Portugal straight to their address, gift wrapped if you like (2 €, an option on the product page).
At Christmas, dates matter. To arrive before the 25th, orders going outside Portugal must be placed by 11 December. Within Portugal, by 18 December.
If you cannot decide on an image, a digital gift card solves it, because it arrives by email and the recipient chooses. The brand's full range is in Olivo puzzles.
