The Water Museum is an off the beaten path museum in Lisbon, Portugal that showcases the history of water in the city of Lisbon.

At this small museum housed in an old water pumping station you get a comprehensive history of how water was brought to the city of Lisbon from the early centuries until today.

A small off the beaten path museum

Now, I must be honest here. This is not a museum we would normally seek out to see in Lisbon. But when it’s raining buckets of water all day for 3 days and you’ve already seen the popular museums in the city, you seek out something different – enter this Water Museum.

Seems appropriate we would visit this little museum given all the agua (water) we were getting drenched in 😂☔️! The video below shows the crazy rain on the day we visited ☔️.

A unique look at the history of water delivery in Lisbon

The museum takes us on a journey from the times when massive aquaducts that spanned hundreds of miles carried water across towns to the city of Lisbon.

The aquaducts a water delivery marvel

The aquaducts captured water from springs outside Lisbon, then the water flowed freely via the aquaducts using gravity down towards the city.

Fountains of drinking water

These aquaducts carried water to Lisbon where they emptied into public fountains in the city. From these fountains that were dotted throughout the city, residents could fill buckets and containers of water to take home for all their daily needs.

Water carriers

Some savvy entrepreneurs found a business opportunity here and offered their water filling services for a fee. This became so popular that water carriers were taking more than their share of water, leaving little for other residents who could not afford their services.

Water regulation is introduced

To regulate the dispensing of water from the fountains, the city created private water companies to manage the water carriers. These water companies eventually became part of today’s modern day Lisbon Water District, regulating water and rates.

Here’s another little tidbit. The water fountains had multiple spouts that were divided into groups. Only people from the different ethnicities could get water from their designated water spouts – Whites, Indians working for Whites, Indian slaves, and Blacks slaves.

When driving around Lisbon look for these historic auqaducts and fountains

Driving around town you can still see the historic aquaducts as the city of Lisbon developed cleverly around these water marvels. Rather than demolish these water transport systems, they built around them ❤️.

I took these pictures as we were driving under the aquaducts.

When walking around the city look out for old water fountains too

Historic fountains are dotted all over Lisbon in squares and gathering plazas. If I hadn’t visited the Agua museum, I would never have known what an integral part of Lisbon’s water infrastructure these fountains were.

The museum is a quick visit on a weekday. We took about 30 minutes-1 hour to leisurely cover the entire museum. If you have time and want to learn about the aquaducts that span the city and fun facts about water infrastructure, stop by this off the beaten path little museum – Museu da Agua.

Museu da Agua. The Water Museum in Lisbon, Portugal