Exploring Lodz September 12, 2025

Lodz, pronounced Woodge, is the third largest city in Poland. It is in central Poland and not well known to travellers but is called the  Polish Manchester as it became known for its textile industry.

Trams are everywhere and you have to look both ways as well as watch for trams before crossing streets.

Monument in Liberty  Square of a Polish hero named Tadeusz Kosciuszko who fought in the American Revolutuon with the contential army of George Washington.

Piotrokowska Street is one of the longest commercial thoroughfares in Europe. The buildings along this 1.2 mile street are extraordinary. The wealth of the textile Barron's covers up the dark secrets of poor pay and dreadful working conditions of the labourers.

This building was the first hotel. The amazing thing about this building though is the little passageway on the right. This passageway leads to an amazing art installation called Pazaz Rozy or Rosa's Passage by artist Joanna Rajkowowska.

It is a narrow courtyard that is covered in pieces of mirrored glass. 800 sq m. It covers every corner, window frame, ledge etc. and represents the narrow passage from the  rich (Piotrokowska Street) to Zachodina St (workers) but more importantly it represents her daughter Rosa's Passage from not seeing to seeing. Rosa's daughter was diagnosed with eye cancer.

The mirror pieces are all rosettes representing the retina of the eye and the way it displaces light in all directions to fill up all the dark spaces. This courtyard went from dark to bright.

This is a reflection of Ed and I. Moving just a millimetre either way completely changes the way the image looks. A truly cool place.  I did not take near enough pictures of this place to get the full impression of it. There is a video on how it was made on her website and of course way more explanation of what it all means.

The first mention of Lodz in the history books is in 1332 as a small village. 

It was owned by Catholic Bishops in 1423, Sweds burned and murdered the towns folk in 1655 and plague and fire destroyed it 1661.

The lamplighter statue. There are bronze statues all over this city. There is even a special route you can do with your children to find animals.

In the 18th century Lodz passed to Prussia and 10 years later became part of Russia controlled by a Polish King. In 1815, a treaty was in place to revitalize Lodz. In 1816, the Czar gave German immigrants territory deeds to clear land, build factories and houses. They were given tax exemptions for 6 years, free building materials for houses and perpetual leases of land. Also included was no military service and customs duties between Russia and Poland. By 1825, the first cotton mill-textile mills were built and thanks to the Russian economy the textile industry flourished. It was the influx of numerous immigrants, mainly German and Jewish, that supplied the workers. This multinational society struggled with social inequality but was also exploited by the rich industrialists. This bronze statue is three of the top industrial titans of the era. 

These beautiful buildings would have been interspersed with red brick factories and dilapidated tenement buildings during the heyday of textile manufacturing.

We went to a kebab place for lunch. This was our first encounter with ordering from a machine in the restaurant. We have ordered in places like Burger King by machine but not in a restaurant with waiters. We also encountered ordering from a QR code at your table. I suspect these are leftovers from COVID.

 This Tenement house is called The House Under the Chestnut. This building has the window frames of important people through Lodz's history including the king, politicians, and artists. There are even a divorced couple in the windows one at each end of the building.

Why?

The Gutenberg House, considered the most beautiful building on Piotrokowska St.

It was a printing house thus the Gutenberg reference. It definitely is a building that stands out. All of the crests, faces and markings have meanings such as the faces represent various emotions. There is even a statue of Gutenberg in the entry arch.

I dont know what the dragons stand for but from a distance they looked like weird chickens to me.

This is a well known animated fairy tale bear that entertained kids for years on TV in Poland and other parts of Europe.

Arthur Rubinstein was a Polish-American pianist.

Wladyslaw Reymont- Nobel Prize winner in literature, wrote some 30 novels but is best known for the 1899 book The Promised Land.

This book about 3 men, one Polish, one Jewish and one German, are trying to start textile factories. It is a novel about the social inequalities of nationality and economics.

Children and fish.

Lodz has over 100 murals on buildings around the city. For the life of me, neither Ed or I could figure this one out.

We found this lovely red brick factory turned into a lovely restaurant.

This street art mural represents Lodz which means boat. Although Lodz has no water near it now, the name ties the modern city back to its historical roots and the River Lodka. Considered one of the largest street art murals in the country, it is 960 square meters and took over 2000 spray cans of paint to complete. It has become a major tourist attraction. The city now recognizes graffiti street art as a valid art form.