The Łódź Voivodeship (Polish: Województwo łódzkie) is located in
central Poland and borders on the Greater Poland Voivodeship to the
west, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship to the north, Mazovia to the east
and Opole, Silesia and Świętokrzyskie to the south. The south of the
voivodeship is characterized by the Polish Highlands, in the southwest
this is the Silesian Plateau, further east the Wielun Plateau, a
northern foothill of the Kraków-Częstochowa Jura, then the Radomsko
Uplands and the Przedbórz Uplands, with the highest natural elevations
in the voivodeship . To the north is the Łódź plateau, framed by the
Warta and Pilitza river valleys. In the north, the lowlands merge into
the Warsaw-Berlin glacial valley.
In the region you will find
numerous Romanesque and Gothic monasteries, churches, castles and towns,
traces of the Polish Reformation, evidence of Jewish life and the
development of the Polish textile industry at the transition from the
18th to the 19th century, especially in Łódź, the Polish city of
Manchester. There are good water sports opportunities at the numerous
reservoirs and rivers. The kayak route along the Pilitza is particularly
recommended. The large forest areas in the river valleys invite you to
relax. In particular, the provincial capital and university city of Łódź
offers an interesting cultural programme.
The name Łódź goes back to the voivodeship capital and can be
translated as a boat. In fact, the city lies on the watershed between
the Vistula and the Warthe/Oder. Its tributaries, the Ner and Bzura,
originate in the city area. In the Middle Ages, the voivodeship area was
located at the interface between Greater Poland, Lesser Poland and
Mazovia. When the Kingdom of Poland in 1138 divided into partial
principalities under the suzerainty of Kraków Seniors under the sons of
Boleslaus III. was divided up, the principality of Łęczyca came first to
the dowager queen Salome von Berg and after her death in 1144 to the
senior Kraków. The principality, which roughly corresponded in area to
today's voivodeship, was further divided by succession in 1264, and an
independent principality of Sieradz arose in the west. At the beginning
of the 14th century, the Łęczyca and Sieradz voivodeships were formed
from the two principalities, which were counted among the Greater Polish
part of the Kingdom of Poland. Smaller parts also include areas of Upper
Silesia, Lesser Poland and Mazovia in today's voivodeship area. Small
parts of the original principalities are now in the Greater Poland and
Mazovia Voivodeships.
In the north of the voivodeship is the
Mazovian Plain, which extends here to the Warsaw-Berlin glacial valley.
The lowland is shaped by the valley of the Bzura. The area borders on
the Kujawische Lake District in the north and, like Kujawy and
Wielkopolska, already belonged to the core area of the Polish state in
the 10th century. Therefore, there are numerous traces of the Romanesque
period, including the largest preserved Romanesque church in Poland near
Tum and the old regional capital Łęczyca.
The Warta valley
adjoins the Mazovian lowlands to the south-west. This was also part of
Greater Poland and thus the core area of the Polish state in the early
10th century. The second regional capital, Sieradz, is located on the
Warthe. Brick Gothic towns can be found along the river. The Jeziorsko
reservoir on the Warthe invites you to practice water sports.
The
Lask Plateau forms the densely populated center of the voivodeship.
Since the end of the 18th century, the center of weaving and textile
industry in Poland has been located here. Numerous palaces and villas of
the nouveau riche textile entrepreneurs testify to their former
prosperity. The area also harbors numerous witnesses to its
Polish-Jewish past. Other religious minorities who found a home here
were the Czech Brethren, Moravian Brethren and Mariavites.
The
Lodscher hilly country stretches east of the Lask plateau. Similar to
deses, it is shaped by the textile industry and the styles of the 19th
century. The capital of the voivodeship lies not only on the watershed
between the Vistula and the Oder, but also on the transition from the
plateau to the hills.
In the east, the voivodeship is part of
Mazovia. Łowicz is known for its Masovian folklore and Nieborów for a
typical baroque palace with a romantic garden of the Masovian high
nobility. The south is characterized by the valley of the Pilitza, which
flows past brick Gothic Masovian castles.
In the south of the
voivodeship lies the Lesser Poland Upland with its rolling hills. The
highest natural mountain in the voivodeship, Fajna Ryba, about 350
meters above sea level, is located here. The same goes for the Kamienna
Góra heap, which is almost forty meters higher and to which there is
even a ski lift. Romanesque-Gothic and Baroque monasteries are located
in Sulejów and Piotrków Trybunalski. The latter has also been the seat
of the Polish Parliament since the Middle Ages. The Sulejów reservoir on
the Pilitza invites you to practice water sports.
Łódź – a city which received city rights in
1423 and which was a small agricultural town, whose industrial
development started in 1820 was the greatest in the second half of the
19th century, immortalized in The Promised Land by Władysław Reymont in
1898, the novel filmed in 1974 by Andrzej Wajda. It boasts the longest
shopping street in Poland - Piotrkowska, large factories, numerous
palaces or villas of manufacturers in the styles of Neo-Romanism,
Neo-Baroque, Neo-Renaissance and a dozen or so Art Nouveau buildings.
Until World War I, it was a multicultural, multinational city with over
half a million inhabitants (Poles, and among factory owners and
industrialists - Germans, Jews, Russians, and less numerous
representatives of other nationalities such as Czechs, Austrians,
Americans, English and others).
Bełchatów
Blaszki
Drzewica (Łódź Voivodship) – a town on the Drzewica River, with a
castle, ruined for over 200 years, but with an impressive layout and
magnificence. Around the park with interesting trees. Old Catholic and
Jewish cemetery.
loud
Konstantynów Lodzki
Kutno
– a county town in the north of the province. An important transport hub
and an industry center. Worth seeing include town hall, church of St.
Lawrence, the Museum of the Battle of Bzura, the postal palace, and a
larch manor house.
Łowicz - a county town,
25 km north-west of Skierniewice, received city rights in 1298, for many
centuries it was the seat of primates. Worth seeing include a Gothic
parish church from the 15th century, a post-Bernardine monastery from
the 15th century, a Renaissance-Baroque collegiate church from the 17th
century, Renaissance-Baroque buildings of the old market square, a town
hall from the 19th century.
Piotrkow Trybunalski
Pabianice
Poddębice, a county town on the Ner, with a Renaissance palace from
1610, surrounded by a park, with the parish church of St. st. Catherine
from 1610.
Radomsko - a city on the southern edge of the province.
City rights since 1266. The capital of the furniture industry. It is
worth seeing the town hall and numerous historic churches and a Tatar
cottage in the Stobiecko Miejskie district.
Rawa Mazowiecka – a
county town, 28 km to the south-east. from Skierniewice, obtained city
rights in 1374, in the mid-15th century it was the seat of one of the
Mazovian duchies, incorporated in 1462 into the Crown. For the next few
centuries, it served as the political and administrative center of
southern Mazovia. Worth seeing include ruins of a Gothic castle from the
14th century (castle tower), church and former Jesuit college in the
Baroque style (early 17th century), Baroque church from 1790
Rzgów
Famous for Europe's largest clothing and textile trade center, the Ptak
Shopping Centre. The first mentions of Rzgów come from 1378. At that
time, a village under German law was located here. In 1476, it obtained
city rights, and lost them in 1870, in the Russian partition. On January
1, 2006, he got them back again. The only historic building entered in
the register of monuments in the register of monuments: the parish
church of St. Stanislaus, late Renaissance, built around 1630, brick,
single-nave with an octagonal tower, gables decorated with attics.
Baroque interior furnishings.
Sieradz
Skierniewice – a city in the
north-east the edge of the province. City rights since 1457. The capital
of horticultural sciences (Institute of Horticulture). Worth seeing
include Neo-Renaissance Town Hall, Classicist Church of St. James, the
palace of the Gniezno archbishops from 1619, a Moorish-style railway
station or a locomotive shed built in the mid-19th century.
Stryków -
mentioned already in 1387, received city rights in 1394 at the hands of
Władysław Jagiełło. In the Middle Ages, a road from Zgierz to Łowicz,
connecting Mazovia with Wielkopolska and Silesia, passed through
Stryków. It was a small craft and agricultural town, an attempt to
create a textile industry here at the end of the 18th and in the 19th
century failed. In the interwar period, it was mainly a working-class
town. A spinning mill, a textile factory, a brickyard and a roofing
paper factory operated here. After the war, the city maintained a
working-class character, and food trade became more important. Near
Stryków there is the largest motorway junction in Poland - the junction
of the A1 motorway (north-south) and the A2 motorway (east-west).
Therefore, in recent years, many logistics centers of large companies,
even international ones, have been built here.
Shadek
Tomaszow
Mazowiecki
Warta (town) - a town and commune in the Sieradz district,
on the Warta River, the Jeziorsko water reservoir is nearby. There is
the Museum of the City and the Warta River in the city. Stanisław
Skarżyński was born in Warta. He was a pilot who, on May 8, 1933,
crossed the Atlantic alone on a Polish RWD-5bis plane (he flew in a
suit, not a pilot's suit), setting a world record for the flight
distance. A statue of him with a bust was erected in Warta, and the
museum has a large, permanent exhibition dedicated to his memory.
Wielun
Wolbórz A town on the expressway No. 8, once the seat of the
castellany, now the capital of the commune. Assembly point of the Crown
troops before marching to Grunwald. After losing its town rights in
1870, Wolbórz regained them on January 1, 2011. Monuments: the bishop's
palace with a palace park; church St. Nicholas, where Władysław Jagiełło
prayed in 1410. In the vicinity, there are excellent areas for horse
riding.
Zdunska Wola
Złoczew on the Warta river. Mentioned in
chronicles from 1496. For centuries, the owners were the Ruszkowski
family. Złoczew owes its urban existence to Andrzej Ruszkowski
(1563-1619), a Kalisz swordsmith, who in 1600 brought to Złoczew the oo.
Bernardines, erecting a religious church and a monastery for them. He
obtained a location privilege from King Sigismund III Vasa issued on
December 14, 1605 in Kraków. He moved his seat to Złoczew, building a
brick mansion there in the years 1614-1616, rebuilt in the 18th and 19th
centuries into a palace. The village was laid out as a city with a
market square (100 x 60 m), in the middle of which a town hall was
erected in 1651.
It is worth seeing the palace with outbuildings and
a garden as well as other sacral and secular monuments entered on the
list of monuments:
parish church st. Andrzej, 1614-17, 18th
century, also founded by Andrzej Ruszkowski,
Bernardine monastery
complex, currently Camaldolese nuns, 17th-19th century: church of st.
Cross, with a monastery, a chapel in the church cemetery, a fence with a
gate,
Zgierz
Polish is the official and colloquial language. People speak Polish with different dialects. In Łódź, the foreign language skills of the population are good. Almost all of the younger residents speak very good or good English. Many also have a second foreign language such as German, French, Spanish, Italian or Russian. And finally, Polish is not as difficult to learn as one might initially think.
We recommend arriving by car, bus or train. Since the voivodeship is
located in the center of Poland, the main road and rail arteries
intersect here.
By plane
Lublinek Airport (IATA: LCJ) is
located near Łódź in the Łódź Voivodeship and is also served by
German-speaking countries.
Street
The road conditions and the
rail network are good. The journey is recommended from Poznań via the
well-developed Autostrada A2 or from Katowice via the Autostrada A1.
By train
The rail network is also good. We recommend arriving
from Poznań or Katowice. There are some historic narrow-gauge railways.
The road network is well developed. This is where the A1 (Katowice-Gdansk) and A2 (Berlin-Warschsu) autobahns cross. This also applies to train connections.
Hiking: There is a network of hiking trails in Łódź. Hiking trails
are marked uniformly throughout Poland: between two horizontal white
stripes there is a colored bar that indicates the respective route. The
Polish Tourist Organization provides more information.
Cycling:
Bicycles can be hired on site. There are a large number of cycle paths.
However, motor vehicle traffic on the roads is not low.
Water sports:
Boats and kayaks can be rented on the reservoirs and on the rivers.
For Polish cuisine, see the relevant section in the Poland article.
Łódź is considered the techno capital of Poland. There are many dance floors set up in converted disused industrial plants. There are also many clubs and the Festival of Four Cultures (Polish, Jewish, German and Russian).
It is actually quite safe, but you should avoid large crowds, e.g. B. at large markets or train stations - as everywhere in the world - do not neglect the necessary care.
The climate is a transitional climate from temperate to continental. Summers are generally warm to hot, with average temperatures between 16°C and 21°C, and winters are cold, with average temperatures around -5°C. Precipitation falls mainly in spring and autumn, with less precipitation than in western Poland.