Central Tejo (the Electricity Factory at MAAT)

Central Tejo (the Tejo Power Station) is the big red-brick industrial building on the Belém riverside, next to the curved white MAAT building. It is part of MAAT, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology run by the EDP Foundation, and inside it is the exhibition MAAT calls The Electricity Factory (A Fábrica da Eletricidade).

It was built in 1908 by the Companhias Reunidas de Gás e Electricidade and made electricity for Lisbon from 1909 to 1972. Wikipedia describes it as the main power station in Lisbon and Portugal until the mid-20th century. From 1951 it was kept as a reserve, it shut for good in 1975, and it reopened as the Electricity Museum in 1990. It was listed as a Property of Public Interest in 1986. MAAT describes the building’s iron frame, clad in brick, as a landmark of early 20th-century industrial architecture in Portugal.

The machinery is original and, in MAAT’s words, in a perfect state of conservation. For a child who loves machines, this is one of the best places in Portugal to stand next to something really big.

Wikipedia’s account turns neatly into a story children can follow, step by step:

1. Coal arrived by boat on the Tagus.
2. It was crushed, stored in silos and carried on conveyor belts to the furnaces.
3. The furnaces burned at about 1,200°C, heating water in huge boilers until it became high-pressure steam.
4. The steam spun turbo-alternators: turbines joined to generators that turned movement into electricity, at 10,500 volts and 50 hertz.
5. The used steam was cooled back into water in condensers, using water pumped from the river through separate tubes, and the clean water went round again.

The station grew in stages. The low-pressure section, built between 1914 and 1930, had eleven boilers. The high-pressure section, added between 1941 and 1951, has the giant Babcock & Wilcox boilers that most visitors remember. The museum displays high-pressure boilers and two AEG turbo-alternators from the 1940s, along with condensers, circuit breakers, measuring instruments, pumps, filters and distillers.

The human story is worth telling too. About 500 people worked here across shifts, in more than 45 different jobs. Conditions in the boiler rooms were extremely harsh, with coal dust, fierce heat and constant noise. Older children can think about what a day’s work felt like compared with the quiet halls they walk through now.

In 2023 MAAT added a newer section, A História da Energia (The History of Energy). It carries the story forward from coal to renewable energy and asks visitors to think about climate change and how we use power. Together, the two parts take a child from shovelling coal in 1909 to wind turbines and solar panels today.

MAAT runs guided tours of The Electricity Factory made for children, on Saturdays and Sundays or by appointment. There are also general tours and History of Energy tours every day except Tuesday. MAAT’s tour pages don’t give the children’s tour times or prices, so email visitar.maat@edp.pt or ring 210 028 130 to check.

When we checked, MAAT’s programme listed a children’s workshop, “These pieces are aMAATzing!”, running on dates from 24 May to 13 December 2026 from 11:00 to 13:00, and science workshops for schools, including one on solar cars. A homeschool group could ask about the school workshops.

MAAT’s rules say children must always be with an adult, so these are not drop-off sessions.

Children aged 0 to 12 go free. When we checked in September 2026, adults resident in Portugal paid €12, students €9 and over-65s €10.20, while visitors living outside Portugal paid €16. Residents get in free on the first Sunday of every month between 10:00 and 13:00. Check on the ticket page which spaces a ticket includes.

MAAT opens Wednesday to Monday, 10:00 to 19:00, and closes on Tuesdays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December, and from 15:00 between 24 and 31 December.

MAAT is on Avenida Brasília in Belém. There is a free public car park about 500 metres away, plus bicycle parking. By public transport, Belém is served by train and tram from central Lisbon.

Large bags, backpacks and umbrellas are not allowed inside (baby bags are the exception), so use the €1 coin lockers. There is nappy changing, a café and restaurant, a shop and an ATM. You can’t eat, drink or touch the exhibits inside.

Inside there are lifts and ramps to the upper floors, and wheelchairs can be borrowed at the ticket office, but MAAT says a small part of the Electricity Factory can’t be reached by visitors with reduced mobility. If you have a buggy, ask at the desk which route to take.

The boiler halls are tall, industrial spaces full of pipes and walkways. Most machine-loving children find that exciting; a more anxious child might want a hand to hold.

Children aged about five and up who like machines will be happiest, and the weekend children’s tour helps younger ones make sense of it. Teenagers studying physics or the Industrial Revolution get a real power station to walk through. Under-fives can enjoy the scale, but they can’t touch anything.

Children hoping for lots of buttons may find it more of a looking museum than a playing one. The riverside outside gives them space to run afterwards.

Belém is full of family visits within walking distance. The Museu de Marinha has ships and seaplanes, and the Museu Nacional dos Coches has royal carriages. Pastéis de Belém is the famous custard tart stop. For more big machines from the same era, the steam engines of the Museu da Água Barbadinhos pumped Lisbon’s water, and the Museu Natural da Eletricidade in Seia shows how a mountain river made power.

Is Central Tejo free for children?

Yes. MAAT lets children aged 0 to 12 in free. Adult residents paid €12 when we checked.

Is MAAT open on Tuesdays?

No. It opens Wednesday to Monday, 10:00 to 19:00.

Are there tours for kids?

Yes. MAAT runs Electricity Factory tours for children on Saturdays and Sundays, or by appointment. Contact visitar.maat@edp.pt for times and prices.

Can you take a buggy?

There are lifts and ramps, but a small part of the Electricity Factory is not accessible to visitors with reduced mobility. Ask at the desk.

How long do you need?

Allow one to two hours for the power station and the energy exhibition, more if you visit MAAT’s art galleries too.