Water Museum (Barbadinhos Steam Pumping Station)

The Water Museum (in portuguese, Museu da Água) opened on the October 1^st, 1987, under the supervision of EPAL - Empresa Portuguesa das Águas Livres. It's creation was a fair tribute to the engineer Manuel da Maia, the visionary that conceived the Aqueduto das Águas Livres during the reign of D. João V. In this space one can find documented the whole historic evolution of the water supply to the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, since the Romanic occupation until nowadays.

There are four museum centers: the Aqueduto das Águas Livres, the Reservatório da Mãe d'Água das Amoreiras, the Reservatório da Patriarcal and the Estação Elevatória a Vapor dos Barbadinhos.

One of the great pillars of engineering in Lisbon, the Aqueduto das Águas Livres, went under construction in 1931 and began to work in the year of 1948.
Completed the construction and counting the length of all the extensions, the network of water supply hits the incredible extension of 58,135 Km.

The Reservatório da Mãe de Água was designed by Carlos Mardel, an architect from Hungary, and was completed in 1834. This reservoir acted as a distributor of the water coming from the Aqueduto das Águas Livres.

Between, 1860 and 1864 the Reservatório da Patriarcal was built, authorship of Mary, an architect from France. It has the particularity of being underground and was responsible for the water distribution to the downtown of Lisbon.

In the year of 1880, in order to provide water to the higher parts of Lisbon, the Estação Elevatória a Vapor dos Barbadinhos was built. Here, one can find the permanent exhibition that correlates and connects all the museum centers.

In 1990 the Water Museum was awarded with the Prémio de Museu do Conselho da Europa due to its role in the conservation and dissemination of European cultural heritage. Until this date, it is the only Portuguese museum to bear this distinction.