Łódź, Poland – benmurphy.org

It’s interesting how different historical fates can make two cities, even in the same country, look completely dissimilar.

Warsaw was pretty much completely flattened during World War II. Between the Nazis blitzing their way in in 1941, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, the Warsaw (entire city) uprising of 1944, and the thorough German reprisal that followed, 85% of the city’s buildings were destroyed. After the war, the old city center was restored to its 18th-century Baroque appearance, and modern communist and post-communist structures filled out the rest of the city. So you don’t see much architecture from the 1800-1945 period in the city.

Łódź (pronounced woodge), situated in the dead center of Poland and roughly equidistant between Warsaw and Poznań, made a convenient stop-over for me en route to the latter, so I’m spending a week (4-11 December 2018) here checking it out.

Łódź (ugh, three accents on four characters, can you believe it? I’m wearing out my laptop’s Alt key here) has an entirely different history than Warsaw, Kraków, or Poznań. Łódż was a 19th-century boomtown. After the third partition of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1795 (after which Poland ceased to exist as an independent state until 1918) the government of the Congress Kingdom of Poland, a Russian puppet state, decided to turn the village of Łódź into a textile manufacturing center. It made sense, given Łódź’s location near the border with Prussia (later Germany), a tempting export market.

And so Łódź rapidly developed into a major city during the 1800s. Big industrialists moved in and built enormous factories and mansions, and low-paid textile workers followed in droves.

But the 20th century was very unkind to the city. Łódź became part of the newly independent Poland at the end of World War I, but in doing so it lost access to the Russian market (and the Soviets proved not to be too keen on markets, anyway). Then came the Great Depression. And then World War II. And then 40 years of communism. Those last three were rough on every city in Poland, but with the collapse of the city’s economic foundation on top of that, Łódź did even worse than average. It was the Detroit of Poland.

It’s bounced back considerably in the last 30 years, but you can tell it’s still in some ways a shadow of its former self. And you know I love cities like that (Porto is my favorite among these). I like Łódź. Not as much as I like Poznań, but more than I like Warsaw.

The highlight of Łódź for me is ul. Piotrkowska, a very long, straight, semi-pedestrianized boulevard lined with interesting restaurants and shops in restored Art Nouveau buildings. In the summer, I can see this place really hopping (5 December 2018).

Much of Łódź’s urban architecture dates from the late 1800s and early 1900s, which is a period I particularly like. Ul. Piotrkowska is a showplace for Art Nouveau and pre-Art Nouveau styles (5 December 2018).

Of course, to me, “distressed façades” like this one are fascinating. I wonder how this building got so soot-blackened? (5 December 2018)

The Manufaktura complex north of ul. Piotrkowska is housed in a restored and refurbished version of one of Łódź’s vast 19th-century red brick textile mills (5 December 2018).

Unsurprisingly, it houses a huge shopping mall, among other things. The Polish winter has given me a new appreciation for warm, dry indoor shopping malls (5 December 2018).

And speaking of Christmas shopping, I visited my very first European Christmas market here in Łódź. Apparently these are big tourist draws across the continent, but I have to say Łódź’s Christmas market left me feeling underwhelmed (8 December 2018).

As you know, I love whimsical Art Nouveau flourishes (Rīga, Latvia does them best). Here are some of my favorites from Łódź: