Electricity Museum / Museu da Eletricidade

A beautiful brick building by the river next to the old ‘Central Tejo’ in the Belém neighbourhood is the home of the EDP Foundation. This is where huge coal-fired boilers stripped from barges generated the steam that powered a group of generators that provided electrical energy to most of Lisbon until the 1950s. Once it stopped fulfilling this function, the building was converted into the Museum of Electricity, opening its doors to the general public in 1990.

Its vast interior warehouses host temporary exhibitions and recreational and learning spaces usually related to energy in its different forms. However, there are also occasional concerts or exhibitions for wider audiences, such the ‘Star Wars’ exhibition based on the successful film saga, which was one of the most visited exhibits of all time. The permanent exhibition uses the central’s own machinery to explain how electricity was produced in the past. The concept for this cultural resembles that of a Science Museum with an industrial base.