Category: Civil Architecture > Museum
District: Aveiro > Aveiro > Cacia
The Telephone Museum, Ti Deolinda Barn is located in Cacia, a locality in the municipality of Aveiro. More specifically, it is found in Sarrazola, a small village characterized by its narrower streets. Its location in a quieter environment offers an authentic perspective of local life on the outskirts of Aveiro city, inviting discovery away from busier urban centers.
This unique museum space was born from Agostinho Pinto's dedication and passion for the world of telecommunications, an interest that emerged in 1971. The idea of creating a place that would preserve the history of telephones took shape in 2006, when an old barn, kindly provided by his mother-in-law, and which gave rise to the name "Ti Deolinda Barn", was transformed. Since then, Agostinho Pinto has been committed to collecting, restoring, and conserving a vast collection, allowing the fascinating evolution of telephone communication to be carefully preserved and shared with all who visit.
Inside the museum, visitors are invited on a captivating journey that spans three centuries of telecommunications history. The collection covers a variety of models, from the early local battery telephones and manual examples, which relied on an operator to establish calls, to the first automatic telephones and, subsequently, those from the digital era. Among the most notable and rare pieces are the imposing Lars Magnus "E" type AB 230-1882 Wall Telephone, the elegant Ericsson AC 110-1892 Table Telephone, and the iconic Siemens Column-type Table Telephone-1930, a model similar to the one used for the first international call in Portugal. The collection also includes unique documents, such as a rare "Posts Telegraphs and Telephones Guide" dated from the 1950s, which offers valuable insight into the communication networks of the time in Continental, Insular, and Overseas Portugal.
The Telephone Museum stands out for its immersive and educational approach. Visitors have the opportunity to practically understand how old telephones, which marked generations, worked. It is possible to try out a local battery telephone, activated by a crank, and understand how calls were established individually, point-to-point. Furthermore, there is the possibility to make and receive calls through a telephone exchange (PBX), allowing interested visitors to assume, for a few moments, the role of a telephone operator, a profession now extinct. This interactive dimension makes the visit particularly enriching, offering a practical perspective on the evolution of human communication.
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.pt
Coordinates DD: 40.6903299,-8.6045242
Coordinates DMS: 40°41'25.2"N 08°36'16.3"W
Weather Cacia
On-duty Pharmacy Cacia
