Manufaktura

Manufaktura is the centrepiece of Łódź's reinvention: a vast complex of 19th-century red-brick factory buildings around a huge cobbled square, transformed since the 2000s into a mix of shops, restaurants, cinemas, and museums. It sounds like it might be grim, but it works. The scale of the original factory is extraordinary, and enough of the industrial character has been preserved to keep it from feeling like a generic shopping centre.

The museums inside are the reason to come: the Museum of the City of Łódź occupies the Poznański Palace at one end of the complex, and the Museum of Modern Art (ms2) is housed in one of the factory halls. The main square hosts occasional concerts and events. Even if you don't go into anything, walking through the complex and looking up at the brick chimney stacks and iron walkways is worthwhile. The contrast between the grandeur of the industrial era and the current retail purpose is either depressing or fascinating, depending on your mood.

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A story
The complex was built by Izrael Poznański, a Jewish textile magnate who arrived in Łódź in the 1850s with almost nothing and became one of the richest men in the Russian Empire. By the time he died in 1900, his factory complex covered 30 hectares, his palace was the grandest private residence in the city, and his workers lived in a closed company town built around the factory. The palace now houses the city museum; the factory is a shopping mall. Capitalism has a long memory.

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