The Pumping Station complex was built at the beginning of the 1890s, as part of the more general improvement to Thessaloniki’s infrastructure by its Ottoman rulers. The work was undertaken by a company by the name of “Compagnie Ottomane des Eaux de Thessalonique”, founded by the Ottoman businessman Nemlizade Zamdi Efendi with Belgian funds. In 1888, the Ottoman government gave the businessman the franchise for supplying water to the central part of the city, a work which the company embarked on according to plans drawn up by Belgian engineers who had previously worked on similar projects in Brussels. The water would be supplied from artesian wells in the region of Kalochori. A double metal pipe would then bring the water by natural flow to the pumping station, whence with the aid of steam-driven hoist pumps the water would be channeled into first two and later three cisterns in the historic city center. The most important person involved in the undertaking was the surveyor Aime Cuypers, who later became the director of the Ottoman Water Company and Belgian Consul in Thessaloniki.



The complex was in continuous operation until 1978, when a new pumping station was opened in Dendropotamo. In 2001, the complex was opened to the public as the Thessaloniki Water Museum, under the auspices of its proprietors, the Thessaloniki Water and Sewage Company.



The complex, including the mechanical equipment, was studied, conserved and restored during the period 1995-2000 with funding from the Second Community Support Framework. It is preserved in excellent condition and is a unique source of knowledge about the history of the Thessaloniki water supply, as well as a reminder of the value of a precious natural resource.