A private driver will pick you up from the address provided in Warsaw by Mercedes car, comfortable for up to six passengers and will take you to Łodź for a full-day tour.
During this 3-hour city tour, the local English speaking guide will introduce you to the atmosphere of this beautiful industrial city.
It is often compared to Manchester – the largest 19th-century textile industry centre in the world. Lodz is therefore often called the “Polish Manchester”. One of the first steam engines in the Kingdom of Poland was run at Ludwik Geyer’s White Factory in 1839 and it was here that the first factory chimney appeared on the Lodz skyline.
Księży Młyn (‘Priest’s Mill’) is a well-preserved, complete industrial quarter with a factory, workers’ dwellings, hospital, school, fire station, owner’s villa, stalls and garden. In recent years the factory has been redeveloped into exclusive apartments. The villa holds a museum presenting the luxurious 19th-century interiors. Not far away, there’s the Scheibler Palace with the Cinematography Museum.
This engaging 5-kilometer catwalk is Łódź's primary playground and personifies everything this city is attempting to achieve in the coming years. It's with good reason that visitors will spend a significant amount of time on this street. Piotrkowska not only keeps going but it has even more alternative culture, terrific gastronomy and more post-industrial complexes for you to explore!
OFF Piotrkowska is an altogether different, unique and alternative proposition.
Situated just off ul. Piotrkowska (hence the name) between numbers 138-140, the complex has taken over the beautiful old cotton mill buildings of the former Ramisch factory. Originally from Czechoslovakia, the Ramisch family relocated to Łódź in the 1830s and in 1850 purchased the first plot of land on which construction of the factory began; adjoining plots were purchased as the empire expanded. By 1909 the factory, in the very heart of the city, was firing on all cylinders. Production continued right up until 1990, after which the buildings and their rich heritage were all but forgotten about and the area fell into a sad and dilapidated state.
Manufaktura today is the result of Poland’s largest renovation project since the reconstruction of Warsaw’s Old Town in the 1950s. The history of the site is one of the fortunes made and lost, of war, nationalisation and destitution. What you see before you was once a series of factories – all producing various textiles – that were constructed in the latter part of the 19th century.
After sightseeing and lunch, the driver will take you back to Warsaw and drop you off at your chosen location.
