Księży Młyn (‘Priest’s Mill’) – well-preserved, complete industrial quarter with a factory, workers’ dwellings, hospital, school, fire station, owner’s villa, stalls and garden. In recent years the factory has been redeveloped into exclusive apartments. The villa holds a museum presenting the luxurious 19th century interiors. Not far away, there’s the Scheibler Palace with the Cinematography Museum. Corner of Przędzalniana St. and Tymienieckiego St.

This engaging five kilometre catwalk is Łódź's primary playground, and personifies everything this city is attempting to achieve in the coming years. It's with good reason that visitors will spend a significant amount of time on this street. Piotrkowska not only keeps going but it has even more alternative culture, terrific gastronomy and more post-industrial complexes for you to explore!

OFF Piotrkowska is an altogether different, unique and alternative proposition. Situated just off ul. Piotrkowska (hence the name) between numbers 138-140, the complex has taken over the beautiful old cotton mill buildings of the former Ramisch factory. Originally from Czechoslovakia, the Ramisch family relocated to Łódź in the 1830’s and in 1850 purchased the first plot of land on which construction of the factory began; adjoining plots were purchased as the empire expanded. By 1909 the factory, in the very heart of the city, was firing on all cylinders. Production continued right up until 1990, after which the buildings and their rich heritage were all but forgotten about and the area fell into a sad and dilapidated state

Walking through the courtyard from Piotrkowska 3 (or from ul. Zachodnia 56) really highlights how such a simple idea can have a big impact. Róża's Passage (Pasaż Róży) brings light and intrigue to this, a courtyard link between two main streets that once contained a dark, rundown former hotel later turned into residential flats, by creating funky mosaics that reflect natural light via thousands of mirror shards. The effect is stunning and truly transforms the surrounding buildings. The creator is Joanna Rajkowska (also responsible for the palm tree in Warsaw!), who chose the name after her daughter, Róża, who at a young age was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer. Following chemotherapy, she was again able to see. Róża's Passage underwent the same journey, as, in the author's own words, [it went] "from not seeing to seeing". If you find yourself at the very beginning of Piotrkowska and near Plac Wolności, you simply cannot miss this courtyard of urban art.

Manufaktura today is the result of Poland’s largest renovation project since the reconstruction of Warsaw’s Old Town in the 1950s. The history of the site is one of fortunes made and lost, of war, nationalisation and destitution. What you see before you was once a series of factories – all producing various textiles – that were constructed in the latter part of the 19th century. Designed by Hilary Majewski, a graduate of St. Petersburg University, the mills were built in a red-brick industrial style, incorporating the occasional Art Nouveau flourish. They were the property of Izrael Poznański, a Jewish merchant who saw the need for high quality textiles on the eastern markets of Russia, Japan and China. As Łódź was at the time the most westerly city in the Russian Empire, Poznański was able to match western textile expertise and industrial practises with limitless access to eastern markets. It was a winning combination - one that made him a fortune and put Łódź on the map.

1h break for Lunch