The Energy and Technology Museum

Contacts
Address: Rinktinės g. 2, LT-09312 Vilnius.
Tel.: (+370 ~ 5) 278 20 85, mob. of director (+370 688) 02 397.
E-mail: info[at]emuziejus.lt, e-mail of director rasa[at]emuziejus.lt
http://www.emuziejus.lt/
Director – Rasa Augutytė.

Information for Visitor

Opening hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday 10–17,
Thursday 10–19.

Admission:
adults – 10 Lt;
pupils, students – 5 Lt.

Guided tours:
lithuanian language – 40 Lt;
foreign languages – 60 Lt.
Guide tours by prior arrangement during the opening hours.

Access:
the Museum is fitted for visitors with mobility impairments.

Additional services:
visitors are provided with the possibility to take photos of the exhibits;
museum grounds can be hired for events.
Audiogides >

Collection
The Museum has the original Power Plant equipment on display. The machinery room with its three turbines and generators forms the heart of the Museum. The turbins, manufactured by AEG (1911), M'AN (1913), "Brown Boveri & Co" (1925) and generators, manufactured by "Brown Boveri & Co" (1925), "Elektrosila" (1947), "Siemens-Schuckert" (1948) are in their original locations. Some of them could be brought into operation for demo purpose (by strong financial support). Next to machinery room is the control room of the Power Plant. The control board is manufactured in 1925 in Poland.
It is interesting to come into the boiler house, go alongside the steam boilers (one is from Babcoc­-Wilcox company, 1925), water pumps and experience mysterious underground labyrinth. In the yard of the Museum there is a little "technological park".
The museum's collection consists of over 2000 items, including historical electrical equipment, engineering drawings, archive documents, books, video.
The exposition also includes a model of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, created in autumn of 1983 for the exhibition in Vilnius (the Nuclear Power Plant was commissioned on 31st December, 1983).
The Museum's exposition also reflects the social history of Vilnius in the past century and the role of electricity in urban and industrial life.

Expositions

Energetics
Visitors are offered to acquaint themselves with the equipment of the early 20th century exploited by the electric power station: steam turbines and boilers, generators, various devices of electricity transmission, measurement and management. The museum’s setting speaks of an authentic industrial space. Furthermore, the exposition includes models of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant and Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant, wind and solar power stations, and others to give basics of energy and electricity in Lithuania. Some fill-in materials can be found in informational terminals.

Transport
The transport exposition (automobiles, motorbikes, their various parts and other items) acquaints one with the development of automobiles and motorbikes and also with the history of Vilnius city public transport system during last hundred years.

Technological history of Vilnius city
The exposition of Vilnius city technological history invites visitors to see how industrialization has changed the face of the city and its everyday life during 200 years (starting from crafts to the collapse of the USSR); the exposition also presents the most important industry sectors such as textile, glass, paper, counting machine industry and laser technologies.

Technology and children. Technology sciences
The purpose of two interactive expositions is to stimulate an interest in science and technology in our society. The exhibits illustrate scientific methods and technological inventions in an amusing way.

Technological Park
In the inner yard of the Energy and Technology Museum, there is the so-called “technological park”, i.e. a public space for Vilnius residents and visitors. It is a unique exposition of authentic technical heritage and contemporary art in the open air where you can see authentic preserved artefacts as well as new artworks.

Cultural, educational activity
Educational guide tours both for children and adults;
Theme activities.

Exhibitions
Additional information The Museum is located in the first electric power station of Vilnius opened in1903. The plant functioned until 1998. The building of the Museum is decorated with a sculpture called Electricity.

History of the Museum building
The Energy and Technology Museum was founded in the building of Vilnius Central Power Plant. The construction of this power plant was started in 1901 and commissioned into operation on February 14, 1903. Throughout the whole of its life from 1903 to 1998 Vilnius Power Plant was a symbol of the electricity to the general public, a temple of Power (though for the last 20 years the Power Plant supplied only heat to some Vilnius districts). Vilnius Power Plant survived the World War I, was destroyed by Nazi in 1944 and within two years the building was reconstructed without changing its external appearance. The façades preserved their original appearance, exept the shape of windows.
In 1999 a campaign was begun to save Power Plant as a part of the national heritage. The official opening of The Energy and Technology Museum was held on February 15, 2003, by celebrating the 100th anniversary of Vilnius Central Power Plant.
The building is one of the important asset of the Museum. While the architect is unknown, but it may have been designed by Boleslovas Balzukevičius, a Lithuanian artist.
The Museum takes the entire building of the plant (with formely used eguipment). Being the most complete surviving example of early Power Station, the Museum represents one of the most interesting monuments of Lithuania's industrial culture, a monument of national importance. In the year that the Power Station was built, it was one of the most modern stations of Russian Empire. On the tower of the building a sculpture "Elektra” was erected, created by the sculptor Boleslovas Balzukevičius. It was a statue of a woman with a laurel garland on the head, holding a torch with an electric lamp in her right hand, her raised left hand proclaimed the beginning of a new era of light. The man at her feet, blinded by light, shielded his eyes with his left hand, and with his right hand attempted to throw away the fading cresset. In Soviet period, the year 1957, sculpture was destroyed, and reconstructed in 1994 (sculptor – Petras Mazuras).