title: Babilonas (shopping mall)
text: # Babilonas (shopping mall)
  
  Babilonas is a shopping and entertainment mall in Panevėžys, Lithuania (Klaipėdos street 143a). It is a part of a wider Babilonas real estate development.
  
  ## 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 (4,590 $m^2$ (49,400 sq ft)).
  * Electronics store (Topo centras, 1,545 $m^2$ (16,630 sq ft)).
  * Chinese goods store (Azijos centras, 800 $m^2$ (8,600 sq ft)).
  * Various other stores and entertainment places (up to 400 $m^2$ (4,300 sq ft)): clothes, sports and lifestyle, drinks, books.
  
  Furniture retail hall, cinema and the electronics store are the largest in northeastern Lithuania (Aukštaitija).
  
  ## History
  
  The construction of the shopping mall started in 2006 and ended in 2007.
  
  In 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, and interior décor. The other primary target market was that for entertainment (cinema, ice rink).
  
  Since 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. On the walls over the shop entrances there are frescoes with bulls and ancient people. In front of the main entrance, there are improvised columns. Inside a shopping center in a special terrarium a crocodile, named by children Babilonijus, lived for several years.
  
  