Region
Greater Poland
The Lodz region (Lodzkie) sits close to the exact centre of Poland, and its identity comes almost entirely from one city, Lodz, the country's great textile boomtown.
Lodz grew explosively in the nineteenth century as mills and workers' housing spread across the plain, and that heritage now defines its appeal: the long Piotrkowska Street lined with tenements, the red-brick factories, and Manufaktura, a former mill complex reborn as a culture and shopping quarter. The city is also home to Poland's renowned national film school.
The surrounding region is flat and agricultural, useful mainly as a fast connection: Lodz sits at the crossing of Poland's main north-south and east-west routes, roughly an hour and a half from Warsaw by train.
Lodz is the base and the reason to come; a day or an overnight covers Piotrkowska, the factories and the street art the city is known for.
Destinations
Places to see
Attraction
Old Market Square
The Renaissance heart of Poznan, where two mechanical goats butt heads on the town hall clock every day at noon.
Hotel
Blow Up Hall 5050
A striking art-design hotel inside the Stary Browar complex, with keyless art-app rooms.
Nature
Lake Malta
A long artificial lake close to the centre, lined with trails, a ski slope and a summer resort.
Attraction
Ratusz i koziolki
At noon two mechanical billy goats emerge above the Ratusz clock and butt heads twelve times, drawing a crowd every single day. The Renaissance town hall, remodelled by Giovanni Battista di Quadro, also houses the city's history museum.
Attraction
Katedra
The Archcathedral Basilica of St Peter and St Paul is Poland's oldest cathedral, first raised in the 10th century. Its Golden Chapel holds the tombs of the first Polish rulers Mieszko I and Boleslaw Chrobry.
Attraction
Poznań Croissant Museum
A small interactive museum on Poznań's Old Market Square devoted to the St. Martin's Croissant, where an hour-long bilingual show teaches the recipe and lets you help shape one.
Attraction
National Museum in Poznań
One of Poland's largest and oldest museums, home to the only Claude Monet on public display in the country. Its Gallery of Painting and Sculpture spans Polish and European art from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.
Attraction
Freedom Square (Plac Wolności)
A large classicist square just west of Poznań's Old Town, ringed by grand civic buildings and used as a central meeting and event space.
Attraction
Grand Theatre (Moniuszko Opera House)
Poznań's main opera house, a neoclassical landmark from 1910 topped by a bronze Pegasus, staging opera and ballet in the city centre beside Adam Mickiewicz Park.