cast-iron in Europe. The region is celebrated for its fine red and white wines, and the National Museum of Wine was established in 1968 under the patronage of the Portuguese Institute of Vineyards and

The Riga branch of the Latvian Railway History Museum was opened in 1994 in a building that was formerly a locomotive repair shop. The collection of locomotives includes examples from Germany and Russia [...] collections of tickets and models. A particular feature is a train of armoured carriages. The Railway Museum also has a branch based in a former railwayman’s house at Jelgava.

The open air museum at Rumsiskes is based on the Skansen principle, displaying buildings, largely of rural origin, from every part of Lithuania, on a single site. It was established in 1966, and opened

Weaving has a prominent place in the museum at Kretinga in north-west Lithuania. The collection originated in 1935, and the museum retained its identity during the Second Word War. It opened displays in

The Lithuanian Maritime Museum is located at the end of the 98 km long Curonian Spit Peninsula, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, shared by Lithuania and Russia, of which the detached city and oblast [...] oblast of Kaliningrad (Kőnigberg) are part. The museum occupies the Nerija Fort, built in nineteenth century to protect the approaches to the seaport of Klaipēda. The fortress was largely destroyed in the [...] the Second World War but was restored for museum use in 1979. Displays in the fortress illustrate the history of Lithuanian shipping, and the nature of the sea, focussing particularly on the achievement

The Riga Motor Museum holds the largest collection of historic cars in the Baltic states. It was founded in 1989 at the initiative of the Latvia Antique (Historic) Automobile Club (AAK) and now displays [...] significant scale in 1908, and one of the two Russo-Baltic cars that survive is displayed in the museum. There are examples of cars imported during the 1920s & 30s from the United States including a Packard [...] Soviet period the Riga Bus Factory (RAF) produced minibuses for the whole of Eastern Europe and the museum holds several examples. The collection also includes many racing cars including a 1938 Auto Union

The museum is in a fine historic brewery building in the Aldaris district of Riga with a working brewery. The brewery was first established here in 1865. The museum displays a brewing hall with its coppers [...] and the many stages in the process from the different raw materials to the finished products. The museum explains the differences between the 55 main beer varieties in the world. Visitors can also see the

tons per year in the early 1960s. It was privatised in 2003, and the new owners opened the factory museum and historic production workshop in 2012. Visitors can see the whole process of producing shot by

The mission of the Estonian Road Museum is to collect and interpret the heritage of roads, road building and traffic since ancient times. It also aims to improve road safety. Outdoor displays of 1.5 hectares [...] displays ask questions about changing attitudes to cars. It has a collection of vehicles. A children’s museum looks at travel in fairy-tales, the nature of time and the geography of Estonia.

originally including a forge, a wire-drawing ship and workshops for the production of needles and pins. A museum, demanded by the workers when the factory was recognised as a heritage site, now occupies two storeys

France’s national military museum was founded in 1905 by the merger of two earlier institutions, the Artillery Museum, created during the French Revolution, and located at les Invalides from 1871, and [...] and the Historical Army Museum, established in 1896 and inspired by French displays at the Paris International Exhibition of 1889. The Hotel des Invalides was built in 1670-74 under the direction of the architect [...] tombs of Napoleon and Vauban (see Besançon) and those of many other eminent French generals. The museum has very large collections of armour, swords, firearms and artillery. Its permanent exhibitions are

Electropolis, located in a ‘city of museums’, is claimed to be the most important museum of electric power in Europe, and is sponsored by EDF SA (i.e. Electricite de France), the principal French power [...] theme that the discovery and application of electric power form an extraordinary human adventure. The museum includes such artefacts as a nineteenth century electrostatic machine and water turbines that drove

than 20 years. The kilns were worked until 1980 and restored to prevent further decay in 2003-04. A museum, open throughout the year, now occupies the former company headquarters. It serves as a base for [...] managed by the Arta company, and have the opportunity to buy cheese, amongst other things, in the museum shop.

The railway museum in Donetsk opened in 2000, the 130th anniversary of the arrival of the railway in what was to become the largest industrial city in the Ukraine. It occupies the former Uzovo locomotive

The Faeton Retro Car Museum at Zaporizhyza was established in 2004. Its collection includes more than sixty motor cars, motorcycles and military vehicles, together with children’s pedal cars, artefacts

new site to avoid its demolition. Plans for an open air museum were discussed but were abandoned during the Second World War. The present museum was planned from 1971 and now has 124 buildings, many of [...] L’viv’s open air museum occupies a site of 59 ha in the north-east of the city, and has exhibits from all over the western part of the Ukraine. Its origins date from 1930 when the wooden church of St Nicholas [...] They include the buildings associated with rural crafts and manufactures found in most Skansen-type museums, mills, smithies, houses used for spinning and weaving, and fulling mills. A particularly imposing

Solar Vinho do Porto. The Royal Wine Company museum displays many historical documents and oil pints relating to the trade: Royal Oporto Wine Company Museum, R Azevedo Magalhaes 314, Vila Nova de Gaia.

originally powered the machinery had previously been used to work a paper mill and a saw mill. A museum in the factory was opened in 1990. It illustrates all aspects of textile manufacture, not just p [...] preparation, spinning and weaving but production of carpets and fabrics for dresses and furnishings. The museum is the base for the Waldviertel Textilstrasse, a route that links together all the historical textile

village of Zlonice in Central Bohemia, 60 km north-west of Prague. The main emphasis of the railway museum, situated at the local station, is on railway freight operations. Most of the steam locomotives in [...] Berlin in 1876. There are some diesel locomotives and an early diesel railcar built in Germany. The museum also includes freight wagons of various kinds, and equipment used for loading and unloading them

The Museum of Industrial Railways is at the southern end of the restored narrow-gauge railway from Zastávka u Brna to Zbýšov. It opened in 1991. Trains run on the 5-kilometres of track. The railway was [...] coal from mines at Zbýšov to the main line at Zastávka, but it now operates at 600-mm gauge. The museum has a static display of rolling stock and regularly runs trains for passengers using its CKD 0-4-0T