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Situated in the central part of
Poland, Lodz is the third biggest city of this country, with more than
700 000 inhabitants.
The name of this city means boat,
picture which is on the city’s flag.
The first written record of the city
is in year 1332, when Lodz appears as a village, after many years king
Wladyslaw Jagiello granted city rights.
Since 1820 a lot of people started
to come from all Europe in Lodz, with them over here came also business men,
workers and craftsmen, which will transform the city in the most important
production center of textile confections from Eastern Europe. Three nations
contributed at the development of the city: Germans, Poles and Jews.
Until the World War I, the industry
of the city was developing, but with the beginning of this event, the markets
in Germany and Russia had been closed, and the industry started to collapse.
The economic life was strict
connected with the textile industry, the city being known as Polish Manchester.
Even after the decline after the WWI, the industry survived, the period after
decline of socialist system, most of the big companies started to close,
because of bankruptcy.
Nowadays, the city benefits of its
geographical position, thus logistic
companies started to develop. In the last years, many multinational companies
started to invest here (for e.g. Dell, Indian IT) creating new job places.
About sightseeing I can recommend: Piotrkowska
Street is the main artery which stretch north to south for almost 5 km, which
makes it one of the longest commercial street of the world. Unfortunately not
all the buildings were renovated and dated back to the 19th century.
Also, we can walk in the largest
city forest in Europe (Łagiewniki), we can visit museums, the zoo, botanical
gardens, and the largest 19th century textile factory complex built by Izrael
Poznanski which has been turned into a shopping center called
"Manufaktura" which is an example of a modern business which operates
in restored 19th century buildings.
Today, 10.03.2013, the day in which
we celebrate saint Ciprian, I decided to make a short visit in the city.
Yesterday, Romanians use to drink 44
glasses of wine in the memory of the men from Sevastia who were closed in
prison, they were been hit with stones, were held in the cold water of a
mountain lake, tortured and burned, for the fact that they refused to renounce
at their Christian believes. These glasses with wine symbolize the power and
the strength, the wine transforming during one year in blood and power to work.
Unfortunately I didn’t drink not a single glass of wine in their memory , but
of course I have a big respect for their big power to remain faithful to their
beliefs.
Leaving the flat were I’m living,
located in a neighborhood which I really like (there is silence and the people
I’ve met so far makes me believe that is the right neighborhood for me), a cold
air was embracing me, making me to remember the late winter from home. Although
we are in the first month of spring, everywhere I look is a carpet of snow that
I didn’t expected to see it here in this days. Of course, I wasn’t intimidated
by the cold weather and I continued my visit to the city.
After making some steps immediately
I’ve arrived on Wojska Polskiego Street. I’ve looked around and I choose to go
on my right side. After some minutes I realized that I was heading to the
center of the city, which made me think about the opportunity to discover the
heart of this city (usually in most of the cities the center is the best part
that you can see).
The way to the center seemed to be
sad, but perhaps the weather has its own fault. The wide range of shades from
gray to black of the buildings which I
saw made me think that people who lives in that neighborhood they have material
difficulties, the financial crisis is felt here also, accentuating even more
the gray shades making it to look more darkly. It’s sad… but these are effects
of not a great involvement of the society in which we live which has bad effects
like higher rate of crime than in other parts of the city. But every city has
this kind of sad story of neighborhoods.
Luckily I haven’t experienced the criminality in this area which I’ve
crossed trying to go to the center of the city or other part of Poland.
Hopefully I everything will be all right, and I will not have any kind of
problems, and my opinion will remain like a supposition.
After a brief period in when I was
sad of what I’ve seen, I’ve began to notice differences , and soon I saw a stately
church by its size and beauty, I could understand that I am close to the
downtown.
Five minutes later I arrived in the
same place where eight months ago I was walking, Manufaktura shopping center
that used to be a place dedicated for factories from textile industry. I
imagine how it can be today if these factories can work like it used to be some
time ago, a lot of workers, but unfortunately I could see only a shopping center
which is a market for a lot of products which aren’t made in Poland.
Let’s make an exercise of
imagination. Please imagine 145 football pitches (over 30 ha) occupied by the
buildings of textile’s industry. Also, close to this center, a lot of workers
had their place to live, a hospital and a church.
Fortunately the architecture is the
same like of the factories which were over here…
But it is late right now, and the
time spent in this shopping center, the noise which you can hear in every mall,
all of these made me tired and convinced me to come back home…
And it was quiet, I didn’t hear the
noise, and all looks like an abandoned city which long time ago had his age of
glory and now it knows the decline…
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