Enough about Warsaw. Today something about Łódź - the third largest Polish city.
Name Łódź means a boat, but it's not entirely proved, that city name origins are connected to the boat. It is possible that name "Łódź" came from surename or from "loza" what means willow.
Łódź as village was mentioned in chronicles in 1337. She won her civics right near one hundreds years later. After attack from Sweden (1777) the city was ruined and counted 265 persons and only 66 houses! In 1820 Polish government decided to rebuild the city as industrial one. Since than Łódź began to grow very quickly and become one of the most industrialized city in Europe.
Author: Polimerek under Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa 2.5
Entrepreneurs from all over the Europe (especially Austria and Germany) founded their factories in Łódź. Those were mainly textile factories - large facilities powered by steam often withe their own railways and trains. Nowadays, what left from factories, became museums, lofts or even marketplaces.
Pictures by AngloPolish
Author: EL-042 under Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa 2.5
Author: Marek i Ewa Wojciechowscy under Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa – Na tych samych warunkach 3.0