If you're a first-time visitor to Łódź, you've come at a truly interesting time. It's not that Łódź hasn't been worth visiting up until now, but the last decade has seen the city going through a major transformation, modernising at a quick pace, while focusing on the ace up its sleeve – its industrial heritage. This knack for change is nothing new in Łódź's history; in fact, it's pretty much the reason it exists as an important city in the first place. The Industrial Revolution sparked Łódź's initial rapid development, and it's now post-industrial urban redevelopment that is making the city an exciting and dynamic destination once again.
So how did this once small village turn into one of the most important industrial cities in Europe? It's time for a history lesson!
The Promised Land
In 1815, following Napoleon's retreat from Russia, Łódź was incorporated into the Russian-controlled Congress Poland. Although this far from pleased local Poles, economically it turned out to be a game changer. In 1820, state official Rajmund Rembieliński, who was interested in economic and urban expansion, set about redesigning the city's layout (which has since remained almost unchanged to this day), and crucially included transportation arteries. The city's cause was further aided when in 1825, statesman, philosopher and writer Stanisław Staszic started a campaign to turn Łódź into a centre of manufacturing. He drew the conclusion that Łódź was the perfect location to become a manufacturing hub, not least due to the numerous rivers and streams, which would provide water for the factories, but also for the abundance of timber from nearby forests.
The first cotton mill opened in 1825 and in 1839 the first steam-powered factory in Poland and Russia officially opened. A massive influx of workers from as far afield as Portugal, England and France came to the city, though the mainstay of the town’s population was made up of Poles and Germans, including many Jews. Those who lived in the surrounding rural areas saw Łódź as a means to move away from the tough settings they were accustomed to, so much so that Łódź became known as a land of milk and honey. Polish author and Nobel laureate Władysław Reymont put it thusly in his famous late-19th century Łódź-based novel Ziemia Obiecana (The Promised Land): "For that 'promised land' – for that tumour – villages were deserted, forests died out, the land was depleted of its treasures, the rivers dried up, people were born. And it sucked everything into itself. And in its powerful jaws it crushed and chewed up people and things, sky and earth, in return giving useless millions to a handful of people, and hunger and hardship to the whole throng."
