Lodz is a very attractive city for tourists.
There is Aquapark Fala, Manufaktura shopping centre, Zoo and Botanical Garden, Palm House, many cultural objects, and city parks on its premises.
In restored palaces, town houses and factories are located many museums, coffee shops and hotels. Lodz’s unique atmosphere comes from succession that prevailed in architecture in the early 20th century.
Flowing lines of chambered buildings, openwork metal balconies, decorative stylizations and mosaics and stained glass in many houses are delightful.
There are many 18th and 19th century historic buildings which are historically, culturally, and architecturally interesting.
Piotrkowska Street
The most important street in Lodz – Piotrkowska Street gathers most cultural events, social actions, and social life in one place.
Summer beer gardens, festivals, concerts, traditional rickshaw, and many astounding monuments directly on the street makes it an unusual place.
You can sit next to Tuwim on his bench, gather around the manufacturers’ table, go to Rubinstein’s concert and after the walk take a ride on a vintage tram.
Walking down Piotrkowska Street it is also worth looking at its renovated courtyards, including the courtyard housing OFF Piotrkowska, or the Geyer’s Gardens.
A place equally interesting for tourists and city residents is Rose Passage (Pasaż Róży) and The Birth of a Day gate.
It is also worth poking your head up. Buildings’ facades at Piotrkowska Street are full of interesting, eclectic, architectural details – caryatids, reliefs, bay windows.
Be sure to look down at your feet, you will see Avenue of the Stars referring to Lodz’s cinematic heritage and the Monument to Lodz residents – a lane of road paved with almost 17 thousand paving stones with a cast-iron plate bearing the names of the founders.
Gallery of Great Lodz Citizens
Piotrkowska Street is a showpiece of the city and Gallery of Great Lodz Citizens is its integral part. The Gallery has 6 monuments dedicated to famous Lodz’s personalities:
• Tuwim’s Bench
• Rubinstein Piano
• Reymont’s Trunk
• The Creators of Industrial Lodz
• Jaracz Armchair
• Lamplighter Monument
Off Piotrkowska
OFF Piotrkowska is a unique project on a nationwide scale that brings together various creative industries.
Fashion designers’, design, architectures’ studios, music clubs, restaurant, exhibition spaces, training halls, showrooms, concept stores and clubhouses opened in one place.
138/140 Piotrkowska Street is currently the trendiest place on a cultural map of Lodz. On premises of Franz Ramisch’s former cotton factory, a project is underway to create an alternative to mainstream consumerism, shaping the area into a vibrant bohemia.
Geyer’s Garden
Geyer’s Garden is an amazing location on west part of Piotrkowska Street, in the quarter enclosed by Wolczanska, Czerwona and Sieradzka Streets.
Former Geyer factory became an entertainment and cultural place for city residents after a revitalization, where the past meets the present.
The huge 19 post-factory buildings complex is a green place for meetings, work, and everyday life.
Numerous events such as summer outdoor film screenings, colourful playgrounds, interesting exhibitions, concerts, fairs, and markets creates unique atmosphere of this place.
Monopolis
Vodka Monopoly Works in the past and now an office, entertainment and cultural Monopolis centre. The current Monopolis uniquely combines different areas of activity. Visitors can easily find incredible restaurants with Italian, Japanese and Mediterranean cuisine and coffeeshops with fresh-baked goods and flavourful coffee. Monopolis offers ARTgallery and Monopolis’ Theatre stage for theatre and art enthusiasts.
EC1 Lodz – City of Culture
One of the important architectural landmarks in the city centre is the complex of buildings of the former Lodz Power Station, which currently houses a cultural institution run by the city of Lodz and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage called EC1 Lodz – City of Culture. Revitalized and expanded EC1 complex functions as cultural, artistic, and educational open space for artists from different areas and suitable for individual creativity, workshops, and group events, with the required infrastructure. It is home to Poland’s most modern planetarium, the Science and Technology Centre or the National Film Culture Centre, the Comics and Interactive Narrative Centre created by the organisers of the International Festival of Comics and Games and conference rooms and halls for event organization including the biggest secession Machine Hall (1360 sqm).
ZOO Orientarium
Orientarium in Lodz is the most modern complex with the fauna and flora of Southeast Asia. The biggest Indian elephant in Europe, gavial crocodile, Sumatran orangutans, and an underwater tunnel from which you can admire sharks and stingrays swimming overhead are just some of the attractions you can enjoy at the facility.
Exposition part of the Orientarium is divided into 4 areas. First of is elephantarium. There is also a free-flight zone golden herons are flying above visitors’ heads. Second area, called Celebes, is divided into two enclosures. One of them is occupied by Oriental otters, Palawan porcupines, bankwa hens and lowland anoa. The other is inhabited by a family of macaques. There are 1300 fishes, sharks, rare guitar rinses, bearded sharks, blacktip reef sharks and stingrays spotted orlenes and Himanturas in the next oceanic part of the Orientarium. Those species can be admired from the biggest in Poland underwater tunnel. Sunday Island is the last, warmest part of the Orientarium. Here we encounter record-size gavial crocodile, Sumatran orangutans, and gibbons, Javan langurs, binturongs, Javan canids and Malayan bears and Asian birds.
Street Art – murals
Walls of many buildings in Lodz are decorated by murals, creating the biggest outdoor city gallery in Poland. Its creators include well-known street artists from Poland (e.g., Proembrion, M-City, Etam) as well as abroad (e.g., Osgemeos, Eduardo Kobra, Inti, Aryz, Remed). Murals have been created in Lodz for years under the Urban Forms Gallery Festival (International Graffiti Festival before). The modern outdoor city gallery is not only graffiti, but there are various installations on the walls – from rods, car parts, mirror fragments and even moss.
www.lodz.travel/co-zobaczyc/murale
Selected museums in Lodz
Lodz offers more than 20 thematically diverse museums. The link below will take you to the descriptions of the facilities listed below:
www.lodz.travel/turystyka/co-zobaczyc/lodzkie-muzea
Museum of the City of Lodz
One of the most interesting museums in Lodz is in a representative residence built for the family of one of the wealthiest factory owners of the 19th century Lodz – Izrael K. Poznanski. Apart from an exhibition of factory owners’ interiors from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and an exhibition presenting the history of industrial Lodz, several lounges have been arranged to house exhibitions devoted to artists associated with Lodz and distinguished citizens of Lodz, presenting memorabilia of Artur Rubinstein, Julian Tuwim, Karl Dedecius and Marek Edelman.
story of industrial Lodz, several lounges have been arranged to house exhibitions devoted to artists associated with Lodz and distinguished citizens of Lodz, presenting memorabilia of Artur Rubinstein, Julian Tuwim, Karl Dedecius and Marek Edelman.
The historic interiors host concerts, vernissages, balls, and banquets. The palace building is adjacent to the revitalised Poznanski’s factory complex, today’s Manufaktura. There is a garden directly adjacent to the palace. Contemporary artists from Lodz present their outdoor sculptures there as part of the Sculpture Alley, integrated into the park’s greenery.
Litzmannstadt Ghetto
Before the Second World War, the Jewish population made up a third of Lodz’s population. Some of them miraculously left Lodz after the outbreak of war, but hard times followed for many who stayed. In February 1940, one of the largest ghettos in Europe was established in the Old Town and Baluty, i.e., the poorest parts of Lodz, which from its inception was a slave labor camp. Its liquidation was carried out in the summer of 1944.
Of the more than 200000 Jews who passed through the Lodz ghetto, only 5-12 thousand survived (the exact number is unknown). They are commemorated by the Park of the Survivors, opened on the 60th anniversary of the liquidation of the ghetto, with the Monument to Poles Saving Jews and over 600 memory trees planted by survivors of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Other sites commemorating the Lodz Ghetto include Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre, Jewish Cemetery, Radegast Station, Roma Forge and the Monument to the Martyrdom of Children.
www.lodz.travel/co-zobaczyc/litzmannstadt-ghetto
Post-industrial buildings
Manufaktura
Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznanski, owner of the industrial complex on Ogrodowa Street, is considered the greatest industrialist of Jewish origin in Lodz. Starting his career by running a fabric shop in the Old Market Square, within a few years he became the creator of the second factory fortune in Lodz.
At the end of the 19th century, Poznanski began building a factory at the junction of Ogrodowa and Zachodnia Streets. The rapid growth of the company and favourable economic conditions resulted in the erection of one of the largest factory buildings in the city – the spinning mill at Ogrodowa Street. The Izrael Poznanski Palace, with its sumptuously decorated facade and rich interiors, was also built nearby.
Today, the main industrial complex is occupied by the Manufaktura shopping, entertainment, and cultural centre. It is a well-known tourist attraction for visitors, a meeting place for Lodz residents, a paradise for gourmets and admirers of famous brands. Manufaktura is a beach in summer, a market and ice rink in winter and a venue for sensational concerts during city events.
Manufaktura is also a museum, a cinema, a theatre, a quarter of a thousand boutiques and shops, playgrounds for children, a fitness club and dozens of restaurants and cafés. However, its focal point is the more than three-hectare Lodz Fibre Market, which serves as a friendly public space. It is here that Europe’s longest fountain illuminates the gloom with its colours and envelops perfectly designed resting places with its white noise.
Ksiezy Mlyn
The factory and residential complex on the Jasien River were built in the 19th century by Karol Scheibler, Lodz’s richest industrialist of German origin. It was a self-sufficient city within a city modelled on English industrial settlements.
There were factory buildings, including a huge, castle-like spinning mill, warehouses, families (workers’ houses), a school, a fire station, two hospitals, a gasworks, a factory club, consumes (shops), the owners’ residences, and a railway siding.
In a narrow sense, Ksiezy Mlyn is the name of a housing estate, a huge spinning mill and workers’ houses with a short street between them, located on the west side of Przedzalniana Street, between Tymienieckiego and Fabryczna Streets and Zrodliska I Park. In a broader sense, it encompasses the entire urban complex, which took shape by the 1920s and includes the estates of the Scheibler and Grohman families. In 1971 the urban complex was declared a monument of industrial architecture. The decline of the textile industry forced a change in the function of the estate.
Today, Ksiezy Mlyn is a magnet for tourists, artists, and photographers. The original post-factory spaces host interesting cultural events, festivals, fashion shows, and the former villas and palaces now house museums.
The factory owner’s palace houses the Museum of Cinematography, the revitalised walls of the former spinning mill are occupied by Loft Aparts, numerous restaurants and apartments. The workers’ housing estate is undergoing renovation, but still serves a residential function.
Facilities:
• Cinematography Museum
• Herbst Palace Museum branch of the Museum of Art
• Wine Library
• the Fairy-Tale Garden of Light in Park Zrodliska
• Palm House
• Grohman’s barrels
• Artistic Book Museum
• Academic Design Centre
www.lodz.travel/co-zobaczyc/ksiezy-mlyn
Green Lodz
Over 1/5 area of Lodz is occupied by greenery. There are almost 40 city parks including 11 historic ones included in the conservation area, Botanical Garden, ZOO, numerous squares, green areas, newly created pocket parks, as well as forest areas, among which the Lagiewnicki Forest (1205 ha) deserves special attention. It is the biggest forest area located within urban borders in Europe.
The parks are a place of rest and respite from the hustle and bustle of big-city life, although there is plenty going on here too. It is worth visiting Botanical Garden at the beginning of May as over 70 thousand tulips are blooming; an artistic picnic, organised to welcome the summer, in Helenow Park is a pleasant way to spend the longest day during the day; on Saturday mornings in the summer, the Breakfast Park in Lodz’s oldest park is worthy of attention – Zrodliska Park.
Moreover, free photography workshops in a form of walks and sport activities such as Nordic walking and cross-country skiing are happening in parks of Lodz all year long. It is also worth going to Zdrowie Park.
You can sit in the shade of a sprawling monumental oak with the familiar name of Fabrykant in Klepacza Park. Julianowski Park is enchanted by the beauty of the beautiful Sokolowka river valley and one of the oldest trees in Lodz, oak called Kosynier.
You can try your hand at the bike track in Poniatowski Park and pedal a boat on Stefanski Pond in 1st May Park.
Botanical Garden
Botanical Garden in Lodz is one of the biggest gardens in Poland. At 67 hectares more than 3400 species, varieties, and hybrids (taxa) of ground plants and around 2000 taxa of greenhouse plants grow. With the ZOO, Josef Pilsudski Park
(called by Lodz residents Zdrowie Park) and the Polesie Konstantynowskie nature reserve nearby it creates over 250 hectares of the green heart of the city. The garden in its current state was made public, starting in the 1970s onwards.
Palm House
A place full of warmth and of unusual exoticism, where we are transported, if only for a moment, to warm climatic zones, can be found in the oldest park in Lodz – Zrodliska Park.
You can be sure that a walk through the Palm House will provide us with many pleasant experiences no matter the season. 150 years old palm trees are the oldest plants in the Palm House.
They are complemented by magnificent banana trees, araucarias, bamboo, and fig trees.
Orchids, bromeliads, begonias, ferns, and crotons found their place under the magnificent crowns of dozens of plants.
www.botaniczny.lodz.pl/palmiarnia
Sport and leisure time
Lodz is fit. Marcin Gortat – NBA basketball player was born in Lodz, Adam Kszczot – European champion and world vice-champion in the 800 m run trains here, Agnieszka Nagay – four-time Olympian in shooting sports and Jerzy Janowicz a tennis player.
Lodz University of Technology has its own sport celebrities. Gold medallist in the 4 x 400 metre mixed relay at the Tokyo Olympics, as well as a medallist at the Polish junior stadium championships, Kajetan Duszynski, is Lodz Academic Sports Association representative, passionate about sport and biotechnology.
Ola Bednarek, a student of biomedical engineering at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Computer Science and Automation of the Lodz University of Technology is the first women to swim from land to island, 34 km across the Catalina Channel, 46.5 km around New York’s Manhattan and 42 km across the English Channel.
She is one of a few swimmers to have achieved this. Lodz Sport Club and Lodz Widzew have the longest sport tradition.
In addition to football, other sports such as rugby and speedway can also be coached in Lodz. The sport infrastructure is being enriched with new facilities.
The city offers rope parks, climbing walls, a trampoline park, a toboggan run, skateparks or a water ski and wakeboard lift for those who prefer leisure sports.
You can canoe and ride a Lodz Public Bicycle in Lodz.
Sport venues:
• Wladyslaw Krol municipal stadium
• City Stadium at 138 Pilsudskiego Avenue
• Atlas Arena
• Jozef „Ziuny” Zylinski Arena
• Minerska football training centre
• Lodzianka Training Centre
• Motor Sports Centre
• Sports Bay Lodz University of Technology
www.uml.lodz.pl/czas-wolny/sport/obiekty-sportowe
Atlas Arena Hall
Atlas Arena is one of biggest sports and entertainment halls in Poland. It offers full service for sport but also stage event’s organizers. The Hall has the newest infrastructure meeting the requirements of international sports federations and organisations. It is prepared for basketball, volleyball, handball, indoor football, athletics, combat sports competitions and many more.
Motor Sports Centre
Lodz Moto Arena is the only the only speedway stadium in Lodz and at the same time the most modern venue of its kind in Poland. It has covered seating for ten thousand spectators. The length of the Lodz Moto Arena’s track is 321 meters. In is the first speedway stadium with slope not only on the curves (6 %), but also on the straights (3 %) in
the country. This solution allows competitors to overtake and develop enormous speeds. The stadium can also be an enduro and motocross arena. The Eagle Lodz Speedway Club performs at Lodz Moto Arena.
Sports Bay (Zatoka Sportu
Sports Bay of Lodz University of Technology is a sports complex divided into two parts – the swimming pool and the so-called dry zone. The only indoor 50-metre swimming pool in Lodz is the main part of the swimming pool area. An Olympic-size swimming pool has 10 tracks with 2,5 metres deep at the whole length. There is a 25-metre swimming pool next to it. Its biggest advantage is the regulated bottom. Courses in swimming lessons, aquafitness and diving are held here.
In addition to the pool area, the Sports Bay also has an area for indoor sports. The main point of Sports Bay is multifunctional sports hall that can sit up to 600 people and have other non-sport related uses of. It is equipped with a state-of-the-art sound and multimedia system, allowing concerts, conferences and shows to be organised. Besides that, there are rooms for combat sports and fitness. There is also a large 500 sqm gym and two squash cages next. Between those areas there are climbing walls. Time climbing, bouldering and guiding can be trained here. Approximately 60 belay points are available on the guiding wall, allowing more than 200 climbing lines to be set up.
www.zatokasportu.pl/pl
www.fabrykawspinania.pl
Fala Aquapark
FALA Aquapark is one of the biggest water parks with a swimming pool area, sauna area and spa & wellness area. Outdoor, indoor swimming pools and one with an artificial wave, the highest in Poland Kamkiadze waterslide, up to 8 types of saunas, pools and baths swimming pools and brine baths, jacuzzi, water massages, rope bridge, salt graduation tower, snow grotto, massages, playgrounds, naturist beach, drink bars, restaurants – all this is in the heart of Lodz. The Fala is a unique place, both in terms of architecture and available attractions.
Culture and Art
20 museums operate in Lodz, including Europe’s renowned Central Museum of Textiles and the Museum of Art (ms1 and ms2) with its renowned collections of contemporary art.
Nearly 20 theatre stages, philharmonic and concert halls of the Academy of Music invite spectators to come.
In Lodz, there are also numerous galleries, cinema, community centres and the second largest in the country, a network of municipal libraries.
It is with mentioning that Lodz, next to Warsaw, is the most important cinematography centre – outstanding filmmakers have been educated here for years and new films have been shot in the city’s open-air locations.
A place previously occupied by former Feature Film Studio is nowhome to Opus Film – a significant and awarded multiple times movie producer and Toya Studio – one of the largest and most modern sound studios in Europe.
When planning a film walk in Lodz, it is worth visiting the Museum of Cinematography, unique in Europe.
All up to date information about cultural intuitions can be found on Lodz City Council’s website:
www.uml.lodz.pl/kultura/instytucje-kultury/muzea
www.uml.lodz.pl/kultura/instytucje-kultury/teatry
www.uml.lodz.pl/kultura/instytucje-kultury/galerie
www.uml.lodz.pl/kultura/instytucje-kultury/kina
www.uml.lodz.pl/kultura/instytucje-kultury/domy-kultury
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