Łódź City Culture Park

Piotrkowska 282

Past the gate in the western wall surrounding the White Factory, you can see a rather surprising landscape of the city from before intensive industrialisation. From 2006 to 2008, the premises of the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź surrounded by the greenery of Reymont Park served as a repository for various examples of wooden architecture from the turn of the 20^th century. The historic buildings, many of them lucky to have survived at all, were brought here from different parts of the region and Łódź city. The result is Łódź City Culture Park– in the early days called the Open-Air Museum of Łódź Wooden Architecture.

The complex consists of eight unique buildings: a summer villa from Ruda Pabianicka, four craftsmen’s houses, a two-storey tenement house from Łódź, a tram station building from Zgierz, and an old church from Nowosolna. Each building was reconstructed and carefully restored in an effort to recreate its original appearance. The buildings were selected so as to represent the diversity of the urban fabric of old and then placed along the cobbled streets. The layout closely resembles the historic urban structure of Łódź. This curious time capsule is further enhanced with small pieces of architecture – period-style streetlights and benches and an antique fire hydrant.

The idea to create the open-air museum as an integral part of the Museum goes all the way back to the 1960s. Its originator was the renowned first director of the institution – art historian and critic Krystyna Kondratiuk. Due to financial and organisational obstacles, her idea would become a reality only decades later. The complex has been renovated recently and – starting in December of 2020 – visitors will find inside the various historical buildings a new exhibition called “Łódzkie mikrohistorie. Ludzkie mikrohistorie” (Micro stories of Łódź and its residents) reflecting on the multicultural and textile-making history of Łódź from 1820 to 1989 through the prism of its residents’ everyday lives.

As you enter Łódź City Culture Park from Milionowa street, we encourage you to check out the statue of three bears. It is part of the “Łódź Bajkowa” (Fairytale Łódź) project comprising sculptures of beloved protagonists from various children’s cartoon series produced by the Se-ma-for Animation Studio located throughout Łódź.

New Factory

Piotrkowska 293–305

Before 1850, Ludwik Geyer purchased land on the western side of Piotrkowska street stretching between Czerwona street and Piotrkowska 315. As the company grew, new buildings with unplastered brick walls were built there. The area was commonly known as the Red Factory or the New Factory. This rather large area, bordered by Wólczańska street to the west and Sieradzka to the South, would become home to weaving mills, processing stations and other manufacturing processes in an effort to unburden the production. A large new office building was erected at Piotrkowska 295 to accommodate the company’s increasing needs. Apart from workstations for buchalters and clerks, the four-storey structure boasted a theatre stage, where plays put on by Józef Pilarski, an actor in the Popular Theatre, were performed during the interwar period. At that time, the building would also host boxing and fencing contests in which members of Łódź’s first textile factory sports club competed. The Geyer Sports Club also had its own football pitch and tennis courts located nearby at Piotrkowska 317. At the height of its prosperity – around 1928 – the multi-branch enterprise employed 4,250 people.

After the Geyer company was taken over by communist authorities, the factory’s existing infrastructure made up State Cotton Textiles Factory No. 3, later known as the Felix Dzerzhinsky Cotton Textiles Factory. In the ‘60s it was renamed “Eskimo”. The political changes in 1989 resulted in the company’s slow decline before it ultimately went bankrupt in 2002. Afterwards, the factory facilities fell into disrepair and continued to deteriorate over the following several years. Finally, in 2017 a revitalisation project for the ruined buildings began and the premises were gradually transformed into a post-industrial housing/commerce/culture complex called “Geyer Gardens”.

Geyer Villas

Czerwona 4-6-8

Vis-à-vis the Richard Geyer villa at Czerwona 3 street, the Geyer family began construction on another house in 1897. This one would be erected in a style completely different from the previous Neo-Renaissance residences. Most likely intended to be the home of Emil Geyer and his family, the villa possesses loose references to Gothic architecture, such as a massive gable closed in on three sides or windows adorned with pointed arches. The rather unusual, asymmetrical and irregular structure was expanded in 1900 to include a southern wing under the supervision of Stefan Przedpełski – an architect working for the Geyer enterprise.

In the interwar period, the residence was inhabited by Emil’s son, Karol Geyer, who, after his favourable marriage to Karol Scheibler’s granddaughter, Maria Buchholtz, became one of the wealthiest residents of Łódź. His good fortune ended with the outbreak of WWII and Geyer was arrested by the Nazis. The property was confiscated and its owners driven out of the city. The villa has since fallen somewhat into disrepair, having been used as labourers’ lodgings in the communist era and later transformed into subsidised housing. The subdivision of its apartments into smaller ones, frequent tenant changes and many years of neglect have all but obliterated the original look of the interior.

To this day, next to the villa, on a rather narrow stretch of land near Czerwona street and the old factory premises, there are two nearly identical buildings. These are some of the best-preserved monuments to the philanthropic initiatives of the Geyer family. Around 1898, the family financed the construction of the first of the two-storey buildings at Czerwona 6 street. Possessing a functional style with Neo-Roman and Neo-Gothic motifs, this building became a school for factory workers’ children, one of the largest institutions of its kind in the city prior to WWI, similar in size to the schools at the Scheibler and Poznański factories. In 1923, at the behest of Bishop Wincenty Tymieniecki, the school was handed over to the Order of Saint Ursula, under whose auspices the building was transformed into a children’s shelter for about one hundred kids. Over the following years, the building managed by the Order would become the residence of Sister Superior Aniela Łozińska, as well as a catechetical centre, a boarding house, and an outreach centre for unemployed residents of Łódź. As the school’s needs grew, a second building at Czerwona 8 street was built in 1902. During the interwar period, it housed Public School no. 69. Currently, the buildings are once again occupied by the Order of Saint Ursula and a school (since 1991, Primary School no. 1 STO).

Villa of Ryszard Geyer

Czerwona 3

At the turn of the 20^th century, the Geyer family made a series of investments along Czerwona street built in 1827 in the town of Łódka between the Piotrkowski tract and the Traugott Lange cotton yarn dye-works located at Wólczańska street. The name of the street – meaning “red” – is no coincidence. It is a reference to “Turkish red” – a fabric dye that turned the local sewage red.

Ryszard, the eldest son of Ludwik Geyer, built his residence on a large double plot between 1897 and 1898. The two-storey building, similar to previous family villas, featured numerous Neo-Renaissance influences. It was designed by the acclaimed architect Piotr Brukalski, whose portfolio includes many splendid residences in Łódź, the building of the Industry and Crafts School at Pańska street, and a distinctive animal clinic adorned with a horse sculpture. After years of neglect, the villa was carefully restored. As a result, the façade once again features its aediculae, windows surrounded by columns with top mouldings and triangular pediments, herms with female heads at the entrance, as well as a decorative frieze on top. Of the original lavish interior, the Neo-Baroque and Neo-Rococo crown mouldings, door woodwork and joinery, and Classicist brick fireplace with a mirror in the eastern living room survive along with the ceiling stained glass from the 1920s featuring horns of plenty and flowers. This piece was most likely created by Dezydery Mocznay from Zbąszyń.

The villa’s surroundings have changed significantly since its early days. In 1908, the Geyer family sold the eastern part of the property to the Evangelical-Augsburg Parish of St. John for the construction of St. Matthew’s Church. During the interwar period, a large tenement house was built at the corner of Wólczańska street. In 1996, the residence became the headquarters of the Regional Medical Chamber.

Villa of Eugeniusz Geyer

Przybyszewskiego 10

After the severe crisis in the 1860s, the Geyer enterprise was reborn as a joint-stock company managed by the sons of Ludwik, who passed away in 1869. At the turn of the century, the family began building several new residences. The first of these was the villa of Eugeniusz Geyer, built in the south-eastern corner of the family property located at what is today Przybyszewskiego street. The building was restored in the 21^st century, bringing back to life the details of the lovely ornamented façade. Based on a square layout, the two-storey residence follows a historical design with numerous influences taken from the High Italian Renaissance and Mannerism. The building’s entrances feature decorative portals while the windows boast decorative mouldings. The first floor includes characteristic triangular pediments above the window openings, adorned with cartouche motifs. The north-west side once featured a terrace with steps to the garden. After reconstruction, it became a veranda with large windows. The interior design with its decorative woodwork survives, including the crown mouldings featuring Neo-Renaissance floral motifs.

Eugeniusz Geyer took over management of the family business after his brother Emil died in 1910. Like his predecessors, he combined business with charity, founding a children’s shelter and a school, and even providing a piece of land on which the Evangelical Reformed Church would be built – also donating 13,000 zloty for its construction. However, the life of Eugeniusz and his wife Jadwiga at the villa would be marked with tragedy. Their only son, Stanisław, volunteered for an Uhlan regiment and died during the Polish-Soviet War. The building remained in the hands of the family until 1945. Afterwards, it became state property and was turned into the Dental Clinic of the University of Łódź. Today it is the headquarters of the Regional Sanitation-Epidemiological Department.

Residence and Former Palace of Ludwik Geyer

Piotrkowska 286

The first house of Ludwik Geyer in Łódź was rather modest – just as his beginnings as a businessman in the city. Being an immigrant of little wealth, he leased a plot of land from the government in 1828, living there in a wooden one-storey house which, apart from living quarters also housed dye-works and a percale mill. Thanks to the economic upturn and rapid expansion, just five years later Geyer would move into a new brick building located right next to Piotrkowska street. What is interesting is that, despite his Saxon heritage, he settled on a typically Polish architectural design modelled after the manor houses of nobles from the turn of 19^th century. The symmetrical building covered by a hip roof features a mansard crowned with a large triangle gable. It is worth noting, however, that the present appearance of the building was significantly influenced by reconstructions performed later. The most characteristic “manor” element of the building, which is the two large columns near the entrance, were added later in 1949. Prior to that, there was an iron balcony above the door.

Further success and the birth of his children encouraged Ludwik to build another property in 1843 on the plot adjacent to the current house. At the corner next to Upper Market Square, which became known as Geyer Market Square, he built a residence considered to be the first factory owner’s palace in Łódź. It seems unbelievable now – looking at the rather neglected three-storey tenement house which the building has been transformed into in the process of subsequent reconstructions. The façade of the original two-storey Neo-Renaissance palace overlooked the market square. It featured a low portico and three semi-circular windows. The tall upper floor featured an attic. The building also had a terrace with a driveway from the garden side. A fabric storehouse was located next to the lavishly decorated living quarters.

The family would soon move out from these magnificent lodgings. As a result of the company’s deteriorating situation, to cover his debts, Geyer sold the palace at Piotrkowska 286 and the outbuilding in 1860 to Bank Polski – which would soon make it its headquarters. After 1877, the palace became the property of Ferdinand Fischer and was later sold to Fisel Freindlich. Its current design is a result of modernisation work performed in 1910 when the third floor was added and the façade altered.

Villa of Gustaw Geyer

Piotrkowska 280

The villa of Ludwik Geyer, located next to the White Factory, witnessed both joyful and tragic moments in the family’s history. The building, constructed around 1840, housed mechanical workshops: a metalworking shop, a turning shop and ironworks on the ground floor, and two carpentry shops on the first floor. During holidays and days off however, these halls would fill with laughter and the sound of music. Dance games and theatre group performances were held in a room with a wooden stage and gallery. For this reason, the villa was nicknamed the “Play House”. For a time, there was even a tap-room here. This was also where the Men’s Singing Association founded by Ludwik Geyer would hold its rehearsals.

In the 1870s, the noisy fun was replaced by quiet family life when Gustaw Geyer and his wife Helena started living there. The couple had nine children. Unfortunately, only six would reach adulthood. One of them was Robert Geyer, an entrepreneur, politician, social activist, and important player in the Polish economy during the interwar period. Even during WWI, he became involved in the activities of the Central Civic Committee, supported Polish soldiers and their families, as well as opposed German requisitions. After 1918, he devoted his efforts to the development of his family business as well as to building the Second Polish Republic after Poland regained statehood. He was involved with numerous local associations. He also held many public functions, being a member of the supreme council of the National Right Party, president of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Łódź, government plenipotentiary in matters of industry, and even honorary consul of Finland in Poland. After WWII began, Geyer quickly became involved in helping the prisoners of the Radogoszcz transit camp. When his cousin, Karol Geyer, was arrested, Robert demanded help from the military commander of Łódź. It cost him his life. Thought the exact circumstances are unclear, later that day, 12 December 1939, he was shot dead by the Gestapo in his house at Piotrkowska 280. His nephew, Gwido John, died as well – most likely killed in the villa garden while trying to escape the assailants.

Today, very little remains of the once-magnificent garden where this tragedy took place, as in the 1960s the area was taken up by Milionowa street. You can still see the well-preserved Neo-Renaissance villa with decorative balcony supported by columns from the factory side. Despite its numerous owners, some of the 1911 interior design work survives, including two Neoclassical marble fireplaces, decorative woodwork, and a stained glass window showing the White Factory and the first Geyer palace, dated 1829 – the only surviving piece produced before 1914 at the renowned S.G. Żeleński factory in Krakow.

Water tower

Piotrkowska 282

One of the most characteristic features of the White Factory is its high water tower piercing the sky. But it was not always there. On 8 August 1901, a fire broke out at the plant, consuming the southern wing of the building and all the machinery inside it. Several fire-brigade units worked to put out the fire. Even crews from the rival Scheibler and Poznański factories provided assistance.

Just a month after the fire, intensive rebuilding efforts began, including the installation of appropriate fire prevention solutions. The factory halls now featured a special installation which required water under significant pressure. To achieve this, on the roof, above the staircase, a three-storey water tower was built with a water tank at the very top.

The four-sided tower with plastered walls was envisioned to match the Classicist design of the factory. However, Neo-Renaissance influences are also evident. The rectangular windows of the middle floor are crowned with decorative tympanums. The upper level features small semi-circular windows which make the tower look more refined and graceful, slightly reminiscent of a Renaissance-era palace or city hall tower. The structure is covered by a pyramid roof with a tall spire.

Dust Chimney

Piotrkowska 282

The four-sided open-topped dust chimney is a characteristic architectural element which erases all doubt that this is, in fact, a former cotton factory. This type of chimney was used for mechanical ventilation, to remove the dust from the weaving mill. To a greater extent than other branches of the textile industry, the production of cotton yarn and fabrics was accompanied by ever-present and difficult to manage flammable dust. To combat the problem, specially built ventilation systems with exhausts were used – the best technical solution available at that time.

The White Factory dust chimney was constructed in 1891 in the south-east corner of the factory courtyard. It is directly adjacent to the red brick communications tower of the eastern wing of the plant. The structure, designed by engineer Andrzej Mitropov, takes a simple and functional rectangular form. The white plaster walls are evenly divided by small mouldings and the chimney is crowned by a gable roof mounted on iron, open-work supports.

Engine House

Piotrkowska 282

It may be hard to believe today, but the sophisticated and sleek pavilion adjacent to the northern wing of the White Factory along Milionowa street is not some winter palace garden but actually an engine house. The building, erected in 1899, boasts a rich Neo-Renaissance design, in which very large windows crowned with semicircles are the distinctive feature. These are surrounded by decorative, profiled frames. A series of pilasters lend the façade a sense of rhythm and the top of the building is crowned by a protruding cornice.

This facility was built to accommodate the demands of the modern era, when electric machinery was replacing steam engines. To place it near the factory halls, it was necessary to utilize a section of the garden which was a part of the nearby villa inhabited at the time by Helena Geyer. It was a period of significant technological investment and development. Textile factories were growing so quickly that the number of looms used in the cotton industry across the Kingdom of Poland increased by over 60% between 1900 and 1914. Experiments aiming to convert electrical energy into mechanical energy to power factory machinery began in 1895. Even before the Łódź Power Plant started operating in 1907 and before a network of powerlines spread across the city, small power plants were built at some of the textile factories. The Geyer factory was one of the first to employ such an innovative solution. At the beginning of the 20^th century, a power station consisting of so-called Schmidt generators, dynamos and electric motors was built here – having a total engine output of 1600 HP. After the war, the building would be used to sustain people instead – it became the factory cafeteria.