Most trips to Łódź will either start, end or focus on one street in particular: ulica Piotrkowska (C-2/7). Measuring a little under five kilometres,it ranks as Europe’s longest pedestrian street and is lined with restaurants, beer gardens, hot-dog stands, and a mix of neorenaissance and art nouveau buildings; some in chronic disrepair, others restored to their former glory. Starting at the Tadeusz Kościusko statue the street stretches southwards with crews of all-year-round rickshaws (5zł from end to end) spiriting travellers to the destination of choice.
It may seem unlikely but Łódź is also Poland’s answer to Tinseltown. Stop sniggering at the back, having produced directors like Wajda, Polański and Kieślowski the Polish Hollywood has made an undeniable impact on world cinema. Opened in 1986 and housed inside Karol Scheibler’s extraordinary 19th-century palace, the Museum of Cinematography (G-4, Pl. Zwycięstwa 1) offers visitor two indulgences in one. The museum itself offers a really well presented history of Polish cinema and takes plenty of hats off to the multitude of Polish film greats who’ve studied in the city and who all went on to greater things as well as numerous changing exhibitions. This is the only museum of its kind in Poland, and though extremely badly signposted, it represents a rewarding experience for fans of Polish cinema. Another place inexorably linked with Scheibler is the Księży Młyn Residence (also known as Edward Herbst Palace, H-4, ul. Przędzalniana 72). Though currently the residence is closed for renovation, across the street you can see Scheibler’s enormous factory, Księży Młyn, which opened in 1854 and was soon leaving the competition behind. Once housing 70,000 spindles and the first private gasworks in the city a superb museum documenting these times now survives in a former workers tenement.
The industrialist Łódz is most famous for however is none other than Izrael Poznański, and his palace (B-1, ul. Ogrodowa 15) is now home to the Museum of the City of Lódź – an unmissable chase through the history of the city, as well as a medley of items and artworks that once belonged to Poznański. His factory has since been developed into the Manufaktura shopping and leisure complex, and it’s here you’ll find the official museum of the site (B-1, ul. J. Karskiego 5). Poznańśki was Jewish by birth and you can visit his fearsome mausoleum (the biggest Jewish tomb in the world) at Europe’s largest Jewish cemetery (G-2, ul. Bracka/ul. Zmienna). Founded in 1892 visitors can view over 180,000 tombs. Łódź is famous for its Jewish heritage, though this was all but wiped out in WWII when the city became the home of the notorious Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Over 230,000 Jews were confined here, with over 200,000 eventually transferred to death camps. Jews were transferred to gas chambers from Radegast Station, and today visitors can view three cattle trucks that have since been preserved. But the suffering was by no means exclusive to Jews, as a visit to Radogoszcz Prison proves (F-2, ul. Zgierska 147). Formerly a factory this brick building was transformed by the Nazis into a prison holding Polish socialists and intelligentsia. The exhibition offers a disturbing look at life under occupation, as does the Museum of the Tradition of Independence (A-2, ul. Gdańska 13). A visit to this former tsarist prison offers a chronological journey through the misfortunes Łódź has suffered while being under the control of Imperial Russia, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
It may seem unlikely but Łódź is also Poland’s answer to Tinseltown. Stop sniggering at the back, having produced directors like Wajda, Polański and Kieślowski the Polish Hollywood has made an undeniable impact on world cinema. Opened in 1986 and housed inside Karol Scheibler’s extraordinary 19th-century palace, the Museum of Cinematography (G-4, Pl. Zwycięstwa 1) offers visitor two indulgences in one. The museum itself offers a really well presented history of Polish cinema and takes plenty of hats off to the multitude of Polish film greats who’ve studied in the city and who all went on to greater things as well as numerous changing exhibitions. This is the only museum of its kind in Poland, and though extremely badly signposted, it represents a rewarding experience for fans of Polish cinema. Another place inexorably linked with Scheibler is the Księży Młyn Residence (also known as Edward Herbst Palace, H-4, ul. Przędzalniana 72). Though currently the residence is closed for renovation, across the street you can see Scheibler’s enormous factory, Księży Młyn, which opened in 1854 and was soon leaving the competition behind. Once housing 70,000 spindles and the first private gasworks in the city a superb museum documenting these times now survives in a former workers tenement.
The industrialist Łódz is most famous for however is none other than Izrael Poznański, and his palace (B-1, ul. Ogrodowa 15) is now home to the Museum of the City of Lódź – an unmissable chase through the history of the city, as well as a medley of items and artworks that once belonged to Poznański. His factory has since been developed into the Manufaktura shopping and leisure complex, and it’s here you’ll find the official museum of the site (B-1, ul. J. Karskiego 5). Poznańśki was Jewish by birth and you can visit his fearsome mausoleum (the biggest Jewish tomb in the world) at Europe’s largest Jewish cemetery (G-2, ul. Bracka/ul. Zmienna). Founded in 1892 visitors can view over 180,000 tombs. Łódź is famous for its Jewish heritage, though this was all but wiped out in WWII when the city became the home of the notorious Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Over 230,000 Jews were confined here, with over 200,000 eventually transferred to death camps. Jews were transferred to gas chambers from Radegast Station, and today visitors can view three cattle trucks that have since been preserved. But the suffering was by no means exclusive to Jews, as a visit to Radogoszcz Prison proves (F-2, ul. Zgierska 147). Formerly a factory this brick building was transformed by the Nazis into a prison holding Polish socialists and intelligentsia. The exhibition offers a disturbing look at life under occupation, as does the Museum of the Tradition of Independence (A-2, ul. Gdańska 13). A visit to this former tsarist prison offers a chronological journey through the misfortunes Łódź has suffered while being under the control of Imperial Russia, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
