Piotrkowska Street, Łódź — four kilometres of a factory city

From a cart road to the spine of a factory city

Long before the mills arrived, this was simply the road to Piotrków Trybunalski, running on towards Zgierz — which is where the street's name comes from. The turning point was 1821, when Rajmund Rembieliński laid out a New Town along the route, centred on an octagonal market square now called plac Wolności, Liberty Square. Two years later, in 1823, "ulica Piotrkowska" appears in the planning documents for the first time.

What followed has no parallel elsewhere in Poland. Łódź grew with no medieval core and no cathedral at its centre, but with spinning mills, weaving sheds and manufacturers' palaces strung along one line. Piotrkowska therefore absorbed the jobs that older cities spread across several squares: shopping, administration, display, social life. Hence the length — about 4.2 km from Liberty Square to plac Niepodległości, widening along the way from seventeen to twenty-six metres.

Under German occupation the street was renamed Adolf Hitler Strasse, and recovered its Polish name after the war. The second great change came in the 1990s, when the northern stretch was closed to cars section by section and turned into a pedestrian precinct. A later overhaul relaid it in granite, narrowed the carriageway and replaced the lamps and street furniture.

Look up, then look through the gateways

Piotrkowska is sometimes called an open-air museum of architecture, and the description holds as soon as you raise your eyes. In under a century it accumulated Renaissance Revival, neo-Baroque, Art Nouveau and early Modernist frontages, frequently side by side, because every manufacturer wanted his building to outshine the neighbour's. There is no single style, but there is a very legible hierarchy of ambition.

The best of it, though, is out of sight from the pavement. These blocks have deep courtyards running back into the interior of the plot, linked by archways into an unobvious maze, and some now hold galleries, studios and murals. The most famous is Rose Passage (Pasaż Róży), in the courtyard of number 3: Joanna Rajkowska clad its walls in thousands of mirror fragments that break up the light and throw back windows and sky. It was finished in 2014, and it has a private reason behind it — the artist made it in connection with her daughter's illness and recovery.

OFF Piotrkowska, at numbers 138–140, works in a completely different register. This was Franciszek Ramisch's cotton mill, in production until the 1990s; its sheds now hold design studios, small publishers, clubs and places to eat. The raw red brick stayed where it was. Only what happens inside has changed.

Numbers worth knowing

• 3 — the building with Rose Passage in its courtyard; in the mid-nineteenth century an inn stood here, reckoned the city's first hotel.
• 72 — the Grand Hotel, converted in 1887 from Ludwik Meyer's former factory.
• 104 — Juliusz Heinzl's palace, today the seat of the city authorities; at noon the Łódź bugle call sounds from its window.
• 120 — address of the first permanent cinema on Polish soil, opened in 1899 by the Krzemiński brothers.
• 138–140 — OFF Piotrkowska, in the buildings of the Ramisch mill.
• 282–284 — Ludwik Geyer's White Factory of 1835–1837, now the Central Museum of Textiles.

A street that remembers people

The paving itself is a memorial here. Between Tuwima and Nawrot streets lies the Monument to the Citizens of Łódź of the Millennium Turn: a surface of 13,454 named setts, bought by residents around the year 2000. Families, workplaces and entirely private dedications sit next to one another, some of them legible only to whoever paid for them.

The Avenue of Stars, near 6 Sierpnia Street and the Rubinstein passage, honours figures from Polish cinema and theatre. Łódź is the city of the national film school, so the choice is earned rather than borrowed; the idea dates from the late 1990s.

A third kind of commemoration is the Gallery of Great Citizens of Łódź: bronze figures set straight onto the pavement without plinths, portraying people tied to the city's history. You do not have to hunt for them — you end up waiting beside one for the lights to change.

Getting there

• By train — the underground Łódź Fabryczna station is a ten-minute walk from Liberty Square; Łódź Kaliska sits on the far side of the centre, within a tram ride.
• By tram — lines along Kościuszki and Zachodnia run parallel to Piotrkowska on either side, so you can join the street from anywhere in the centre.
• By car — the pedestrian stretch is closed to traffic while the southern part is normal road; the simplest approach is to park in a neighbouring block and walk in from the side.
• On foot and by rickshaw — 4.2 km one way is a serious walk; cycle rickshaws work the pedestrian section and cover it in about a quarter of an hour.

Before you go

The rewarding part is the northern stretch between Liberty Square and al. Mickiewicza: that is the pedestrian precinct, and that is where the grandest buildings stand. With two hours to spare, start at Liberty Square, walk south, and look through every open gateway you pass.

Keep looking up. Ground floors are refitted every few years, but the first and second storeys still carry the plasterwork, balconies and detail from the days when a building was its owner's calling card.

The street comes alive in the evening and gets loud, especially at weekends around OFF Piotrkowska. For photographs without crowds, come early: before the shops open, the precinct belongs to delivery drivers and street cleaners.

How to get there and practical info

Location

central Łódź, Łódź Voivodeship — the street runs north to south through the city centre, from plac Wolności to plac Niepodległości

Length and width

about 4.2 km; the width grows from seventeen metres at Liberty Square to twenty-six at the southern end

Pedestrian section

the northern stretch from Liberty Square to al. Mickiewicza and al. Piłsudskiego; ordinary traffic continues further south

Heritage status

part of the Historic Monument "Łódź — the multicultural landscape of an industrial city", designated by presidential regulation of 16 February 2015; the buildings are also entered in the register of monuments

Time needed

two to three hours for the pedestrian section including the courtyards; a full day with the museums along the street

Along the way

Rose Passage at number 3, OFF Piotrkowska at 138–140, the White Factory with the Central Museum of Textiles at the southern end

Current opening times and tickets

the street itself is free to walk; the official City of Łódź portal lists current institutions and events on Piotrkowska

When to go