Babilonas is a shopping and entertainment mall in
Panevėžys
Panevėžys (; Latin: ''Panevezen''; pl, Poniewież; yi, פּאָנעװעזש, ''Ponevezh''; see also other names) is the fifth largest city in Lithuania. As of 2011, it occupied with 113,653 inhabitants. As defined by Eurostat, the population ...
,
Lithuania (Klaipėdos street 143a).
It is a part of a wider
Babilonas real estate development
Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to other ...
.
Shops and entertainment businesses
In the shopping mall there are:
*Three restaurants and a cafeteria.
*Cinema (Apollo Babilonas, 3 cinema halls).
*Separate hall for furniture sales ().
*Electronics store (
Topo centras, ).
*Chinese goods store (Azijos centras, ).
*Various other stores and entertainment places (up to ): clothes, sports and lifestyle, drinks, books.
Furniture retail hall, cinema and the electronics store are the largest in northeastern Lithuania (
Aukštaitija
Aukštaitija (; literally in Lithuanian: ''Upper lands'') is the name of one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. The name comes from lands being in upper basin of Nemunas River or being relative to Lowlands up to Šiauliai.
Geography
Au ...
).
History
The construction of the shopping mall started in 2006 and ended in 2007.
In the August 2008 the mall was expanded: the cinema and several additional shops were opened.
In 2007-2008 the primary market catered by the mall was that of household goods: furniture, construction, interior décor. Other primary target market was that for entertainment (cinema,
ice rink
An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...
).
Since year 2009 the market orientation changed: the number of interior goods stores lowered somewhat and at the same time number of stores selling soft goods such as clothing and shoes. In 2010 a supermarket (food store) opened for the first time in Babilonas.
Image and architecture
As the name "Babilonas" means
Babylon, the interior of Babilonas is modeled after the ancient
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
. On the walls over the shop entrances there are
frescoes with bulls and ancient people. In front of main entrance there are improvised columns. Inside a shopping center in a special
terrarium
A terrarium (plural: terraria or terrariums) is usually a sealable glass container containing soil and plants that can be opened for maintenance to access the plants inside; however, terraria can also be open to the atmosphere. Terraria are ofte ...
a
crocodile, named by children Babilonijus, lived for several years.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babilonas (Shopping Mall)
Shopping malls in Panevėžys
Commercial buildings completed in 2007