Uostadvaris Water-Lifting Station

Uostadvaris is a small village steeped in history in the Šilutė district, on Rusnė Island. It lies on the left bank of the Atmata River and is part of the Nemunas Delta Regional Park. Uostadvaris has a surviving early 20th-century water-lifting station, where visitors interested in history can see vividly how the people of the lagoon region fought – and still fight – against excess water. Rusnė Island is famous not only as the capital of fishing and the tastiest smoked fish – every spring the melting ice causes truly huge floods. During them, one of the main access routes to the island, the Šilutė–Rusnė road, is flooded. When the water rises, Uostadvaris, thanks to the water-lifting station here, becomes a real lifeline for island residents and guests caught by the flood. The Uostadvaris water-lifting station with a steam turbine was built in 1907 on the picturesque bank of the Vilkinė River. The turbine drew off excess water from the meadows and discharged it into the Atmata – the steam turbine turned a huge shaft and so pumped water out of the flooded meadows. It is the first structure of its kind in all of Lithuania, so it is not only a monument of technical history but also a particularly valuable site for the history of regional architecture. A few years ago the water-lifting station was restored and now houses the Šilutė Polders Museum, where you can learn how people in the Šilutė district have long fought against excess water and the threat of floods. Although a modern electric pumping station was built in the 1970s and is now used during floods, the old Uostadvaris water-lifting station has not lost its relevance. Today the water-lifting station complex is a state-protected cultural property, visited every year by many people interested in the past.