Księży Młyn, Łódź Voivodeship

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Moving around Łódź in everyday business rarely do we lift our eyes above the heads of other passers-by. Usually busy, rushing somewhere, we seldom pay attention to what is hidden right next to us – the true wealth and beauty of our city. Where has this abundance of forms and shapes come from in Łódź? How has it come to being? Throughout the centuries, a small town of Łódź, hidden somewhere in the forest, was built of wood. We can no longer see what the houses of old Łódź looked like. One building survived till our times – rebuilt and relocated though – the current church of St. Joseph. In 1820 the town of Łódź, located in Congress Poland in the Russian partition, was visited by Rajmund Rembieliński, the chairman of the Masovian Voivodeship Commission. He highlighted the town's good conditions for the development of the textile industry. Almost a year later Łódź received the status of a so-called „industrial city”. To the south of the Old Town a new settlement was drawn – the seed of the industrial Łódź. As to create the right image of the New Town, with the order of the Kingdom of Poland's authorities, standardized, plain wooden and brick house designs for the incoming foreign craftsmen were prepared. Even the colour of the houses’ exterior walls was determined. In 1827, at the octagonal New Town’s main square, the first really representative building was erected - the new Town Hall. Next to it an, almost identical in form, Evangelical Church was built. Both buildings were erected in a, dominant at that time on Polish soil, classicist style. Łódź obtained its first architectural details. In the meantime, the town was extended further southwards by establishing the Łódka settlement. Along the Jasień river, at former mill dikes, the industrial zone was created. In the Księży Młyn area the first, big (water-wheel driven) factory of Łódź was founded – the spinning mill of Krystian Wendisch, with a big, triangular pediment, so characteristic in classicism. Another entrepreneur Tytus Kopisch, managing a bleachery, builds an impressive house – which is currently the oldest existing industrial building in Łódź. In the first decades of industrial Łódź we observe a domination of plain, functional buildings, only sometimes decorated with simple elements typical of later Classicism. The most impressive buildings of those times are the industrial factories. Amongst them the factory of a Saxon newcomer Ludwik Geyer – the White Factory, where in 1838 a new accent of the industrial architecture in the landscape of Łódź rises – the tall chimney of the town's first steam machine. In the following decades chimneys will become a symbol of Łódź. Several years later, Geyer built for himself, right in the Upper Market Square, a representative house in a, new in Łódź, neo-renaissance style. It was, most likely, the first industrialist’s villa in Łódź. In 1855 in the New District next to the Water Market Square, close to the city's first park Źródliska, a factory is erected. It is built by Karol Scheibler, who has just come to Łódź. Until then, industrial buildings were plastered, but this factory gives rise to the brick factories, a distinctive feature of Łódź. On the other side of the market the first family houses for workers are built. For many years though, Łódź’s architectural arrangement was dominated by similar, one-floor wooden or brick houses of craftsmen. Right behind the houses the landscape was simply rural. Windmills, a few dozens of which stood within the borders of Łódź in the second half of the 19th century, were a typical sight. In the 50s and 60s of the 19th century more and more multi-storey tenement houses appear. New public and sacral buildings are erected. The building of the first brick Catholic Church in the neo-romanesque style starts. It will take 20 years. The last 30 years of the 19th century constitute the golden era in the development of Łódź. New factories of the city’s industrialists – Karol Scheibler in Księży Młyn and Israel Poznański on Ogrodowa Street are built. Industrial buildings gain new décor which refers to the fortified, medieval-like style of architecture. More and more old houses are replaced with the new municipal tenement houses, which often change owners and extend to more floors, gaining a new décor full of details. The first long parcels of land often happened to be covered with outbuildings, creating long backyards typical of Łódź. Only later, in the front, were the big, abundantly decorated tenement houses erected. This way, in the 80s and 90s of the 19th century the center of Łódź acquired the typical, big-city characteristics. This rapid increase of the number of buildings can be owed, among others, to the City Credit Union, which provides mortgage loans. In 1881 it builds its stunning headquarters in (back then) Średnia Street, referring in its style to the Italian Renaissance. The designer is the city's head architect, Hilary Majewski, who happens to occupy this post at the time of the most dynamic city’s development. The building is decorated with allegorical sculptures. In the tympanum there are two griffins presenting the motto of the company - „Viribus Unitis”, meaning ‘with united forces’. The unique feature of Łódź has become common – beautiful factory owners' villas, surrounded by gardens and located in the direct neighbourhood of the factories. In the 90s of the 19th century the façades are more frequently decorated with baroque motifs. Tenement houses become more eclectic, full of rich details. At this time a printer Jan Peterslige builds his tenement house on Piotrkowska Street. The eclectic elevation is decorated with a sculpture of Jan Gutenberg and medallions of other important representatives of the history of art and print. Everything is guarded by four metal dragons. Eclecticism with facades woven with details originating from various styles is meant to picture the affluence of the owners. The palace of Israel Poznański is the trend’s best example. It received its current looks in 1903. The neo-renaissance and neo-baroque décor of the walls is complemented with details typical of the trade and industry of Łódź. The window keystones have interesting motifs such as industrial elements of machines, a caduceus – a winged staff with vipers twining around it, symbolizing trade. But also textile symbols – weaving shuttles and a bundle of fiber on a distaff. With the beginning of the 20th century, Łódź witnesses the arrival of Art Noveau. The first buildings in the new style are: the villa of Ryszard Schimmel at 1 Karolewska Street and the tenement house at 43 Piotrkowska Street built in 1901. There are a few pure art noveau buildings in Łódź, but the motifs – both the flowing and the geometrical ones in the style of the Vienna Art Noveau, will remain in the architecture of Łódź throughout the following dozen years. One of the most prominent architects of the city's Art Noveau is Gustaw Landau-Gutenteger, the creator of the best example of this style in Łódź – the villa of Leopold Kindermann on Wólczańska Street. Among the exterior details we can notice meticulously decorated plants and animals. The golden era of Łódź spanning around the turn of 19th and 20th century, during which the architecture was full of all the possible styles; from Historicism to Art Noveau, left the whole menagerie on the façades and side elevations: owls symbolizing wisdom lions and eagles meaning strength and power bees, the symbols of hard work many other animals and mythical creatures The fusion of myths and the industry of Łódź can be traced on the beautiful tenement house of the Krusche and Ender company at 143 Piotrkowska Street, where a dragon protects bales of cotton. The Assembly of the Master Weavers decorates their headquarters with textile shuttles forming a triangle. The trade was an important element of the economy of this industrial city, therefore we can often find caducei and the images of Hermes. The horn of plenty is supposed to portend prosperity and wealth for the owner. Numerous parts of buildings are often supported by caryatids and their male equivalents – atlantes. An example of the Zakopane (a famous town in the Tatras) architectural detail deserves credit. It’s on the 292 Piotrkowska Street tenement house. The sculpture of the Podhale region goral (highlander) is there. In the Bałuty disctrict, on Wrześniewska Street, we see a different patriotic accentuation – a statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko. The wealth of the city's architectural arrangement is also well reflected in cemeteries – the necropoles of Łódź gain remarkable monuments. Since 1910 we have observed the simplification of details and more geometrical motifs. Modernist accents have gained importance. Namely, functionality and modern standards have prevailed. Despite plainer forms, interesting architectural details are still numerous. In the 20s of the 20th century Izrael Poznański’s Joint Stock Cotton Manufacturing builds on the corner of Legionów and Gdańska Street an impressive tenement house, decorated with a typically Łódź-like relief motif – spinners at a spinning wheel. Allegorical reliefs on modernist buildings are designed by Józef Kaban-Korski: on the district court at Dąbrowski Square and the tax chamber building on Kościuszki Avenue. On Narutowicza Street modernist atlantes hold different tools. The doctrine saying that ornament is a crime reaches Łódź as well. In the 30s luxurious modernist tenement houses are erected. Although they lack detail, they do not lack elements complementing their rough shapes, such as interesting portals of specific plaster with mica particles. After the II World War the dominance of the socialist-realism style in Łódź is evident. It reintroduces the architectural detail. But soon, in the second half of the 50s of the 20th century even this style vanishes, making space for simpler forms, lacking beautifying decoration. Throughout the years, the architectural details in Łódź have taken different forms, depending on the dominant styles and fashions – they have showed the affluence of the owner and have referred to the industrial city buildings’ functions. Many interesting buildings have not survived till our times, many have deteriorated. The lack of the appropriate care – either of ideological or financial reasons – has imprinted its mark on the image of the city’s urban tissue. The respect towards the old Łódź is gradually growing, more and more buildings regain splendor. There still is damage being done to the value of the past centuries' architecture. It's really important that the awareness of the richness and value of the architecture of Łódź be more and more widespread. Remember, while strolling around Łódź, to raise your heads!