Pavillon de l'eau, Water museum in 16th arrondissement, France.

Pavillon de l'eau is a former water pumping station in the 16th arrondissement that now operates as a museum housed in a brick building with large skylights on Avenue de Versailles. Inside, exhibits explain how Paris managed water delivery from early times through modern systems.

A steam pump was installed here in 1828 to raise Seine water for Auteuil and Passy. The present station A, with its brick engine room and boiler room under skylit roofs, was built from 1900 by the Pacotte company. Station A was decommissioned in 1955 and became the Pavillon de l'eau in 2007; station B, built in 1925, still pumps water for the Bois de Boulogne lakes and street cleaning.

The permanent exhibition "Alimenter Paris en eau" traces four water-supply eras: Gallo-Roman Lutetia, the Middle Ages, the modern period and the 19th-century industrial revolution. Temporary shows since 2007 have covered subjects such as the 1910 flood and Haussmann's public water service.

The museum offers guided tours, educational workshops, and discussions about water systems for schools and individual visitors. Plan your visit to join a guided tour if possible, as this helps you understand the building's layout and the technical details of its former function.

Station A and Station B are two separate pumping plants a few metres apart, not two wings of one building. Station A, the former engine and boiler halls, became the Pavillon de l'eau in 2007; Station B, built in 1925 with its date on the gable, still pumps water for the Bois de Boulogne lakes and street cleaning and cannot be visited. Both were listed as monuments historiques on 30 January 2020.