Manufaktura
You start inside what was once a city of its own. Manufaktura covers 27 hectares of the former industrial complex of Izrael Poznański, and today the old textile buildings hold an arts centre, a shopping mall and leisure spaces around the largest public square in Łódź, where concerts and sports events take place. Look at the brick factory halls around the square: the renovation kept the industrial shells and filled them with new life.
The complex opened on 17 May 2006 after five years of planning and four years of construction. Its roots go back to 1872, when Poznański built a weaving plant on land he had bought around Ogrodowa Street. Over the next 25 years he added spinning mills, a bleachery, a power plant, a finishing plant, a dyehouse, warehouses, a fire station and a company store. For his thousands of workers he built houses, a hospital, a school, a community centre and a canteen.
Poznański had inherited a small business from his father Kalman, who sold spices and fabrics from a market stand at Stary Rynek. Izrael turned it into an empire riding the booming Russian demand for cotton. When he died in 1900, his assets were estimated at 11 million roubles. Then the strikes of 1905, the First World War, German occupation and the political upheaval in Russia cut Łódź off from its main market.
Film fans may recognise the setting: the complex served as a filming location for The Promised Land, Władysław Reymont's novel about the industrialisation of Łódź. The square is free to walk at any time, and the Market Square restaurants make this a good place to fuel up before setting off.
Poznański's palace stands just 90 m away, a one minute walk from the factory gates he once looked out on.
