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About Lodz
interesting history and bright future
Lodz's history
"Lodz" literally means "a boat" and it's also a name of a small river that runs through the city. The beginning of the town's history dates back to 1423 when Lodz granted the status of a town by the polish king. It's economy was mainly based on agriculture until the beginning of the 19th century when the period of prosperity began. The domestic textile industry came into being and Lodz started to be the leading centre of Polish textile industry. New inhabitants, craftsmen and merchants came to Lodz, the markets and town fairs come to life. Just before World War I, Lodz was one of the most densely populated industrial cities in the world and had the growth rate bigger than New York. The late 19th and early 20th century period was seen to constitute "the Golden Age" of this "young city," which became popularly known as the "Polish Manchester" and "the Promised Land." This was a time when majority of factories and palaces of the factories owners were built. The biggest of them and also one of the biggest such in Europe was Israel Poznanski's textile factories complex, where the Nobel price winning novel "Promised Land" by Wladyslaw Reymont took it's action. The complex along with Israel Poznanski's palace was recently restored and named "Manufaktura" and is slowly becoming the cultural centre of Lodz. Manufaktura is a unique place, incomparable to any other in Poland or even in Europe. Many other 19th and early 20th century palaces, factories and tenement houses have been renovated which makes Lodz unique in terms of architecture and atmosphere. Many people fell in love with the city like for instance US movie director David Lynch who is now involved in building art centre in an old power plant in Lodz.
Until the Second World War and the German occupation Lodz was a city of many cultures (among them four biggest: Polish, Russian, Jewish and German) and a mixture of many traditions, histories and religions which traces can be found in various buildings and temples across Lodz. The city's multicultural heritage is cherished by the "Festival of Dialogue of Four Cultures".
Lodz nowadays
"If it's business, it has to be Lodz," business people used to say in the mid 19th century. Then the city was a world wonder. In but a brief space of time the small marsh settlement transformed into a buoyant, industrial city, a city where fabulous fortunes were made at a veritably American pace. Fortunes so great that legends were soon born about them. The best-known is one about Izrael Poznanski. Second only to Karol Scheibler for the property he amassed, the manufacturer erected a beautiful palace, today still regarded the most magnificent building in the city. According to the legend, Poznanski wanted to border the
floor of the ballroom in golden roubles. Yet he was at a loss as to how to arrange them; were they to be laid eagle up, then the tsar portrayed on the coins would have been face-down to the floor; reversed, and people would tread on the tsar's countenance. So Poznanski wrote to
the monarch asking how the coins should be placed. When the tsar replied "on the edge!", he
abandoned his idea.
Today's Lodz with the population of one million is a second largest city in Poland and just like in the 19th century in economical and cultural blossom. Major companies locate their head offices and factories in Lodz, like for example Philips, Gillette, Dell and many others. This is a city it is impossible not to fall in love with. The famous American director David Lynch experienced that for himself. On one of his visits he took over 6000 photographs of Lodz, and said: "This city makes me begin to dream."
Lodz - the European Capital of Culture 2016
Lodz is one of the most important culture centers in Poland. This powerful nineteenth-century industrial metropolis once again becomes the fastest developing city in the country. The economic upsurge involves the cultural reviviscence. This is one of the reasons why Lodz proves to be prepared well enough to become the European Capital of Culture 2016.
More about Lodz's candidature for the European Capital of Culture 2016 at www.lodz2016.com.
Websites about Lodz:
Lodz in Wikipedia
The City of Lodz Office
Lodz at Polishculture.co.uk
The official tourism page of Lodz
