Palaces & Villas

The rapid development of Łódź in the second half of 19th century brought about the rise of enormous industrialist fortunes. The profits obtained from prosperous textile mills opened up practically unlimited possibilities for their owners. The city residences became expressions of the riches and power of the local tycoons. They were usually situated next to the owner's factory. The residence of the Scheibler family at Wodny Rynek serving as an example here there would be dozens of smaller or larger architectural projects laid out in the similar manner, sometimes with the workers' estates adjacent to them. At times, several residences would be raised, not only occupied by an entrepreneur and his family, but also used for representation and reception. The palaces erected by the Poznański family seem to be the most characteristic in this respect.
photo: White Factory, the seat of the Textile Musuem

Next to the Town houses, the typical urban residences with frontages on the street, there were also the villas, as e.g. The residence of Księży Młyn, surrounded by a beautiful garden, the picturesque little palaces of the Richters or Robert Schweikert's residence.

The residential architecture of Łódź in the times of its prime was based the fashions then abiding is Europe. The variations of exuberant historicism predominated there - the Neo-Baroque, Neo-Renaissance, and Neo-Rococo, often permeating one another and forming an extraordinarily abundant stylistic attire. The urban interiors were even more grandiose. Until the present we can admire the almost barbarian beauty of the parlors, study rooms and bell chambers of the Scheibler, Herbst or Biedermann residences, the high artistic level of their detail and the mastery of the former crafts, now in extinction.

In the facades of the Łódź palaces we are confronted with the detail derived from the architecture of Berlin, Vienna, Paris and Florence. It would reach Łódź via the widespread architecture catalogues and the stucco studios' pattern-books. Among the borrowings from the cosmopolitan repertoire of plaster trimmings we can yet find some motifs corresponding to the industrial visage of the city. The self-made local industrialists, the new-rich sons of the weaver masters and cloth traders would, in all probability, quite consciously reach for such symbols to use in palace of the family crest. This is the reason why we are now able to see such clearly industrial motifs on the keystones of the Poznański Palace in Ogrodowa St., in the stained-glass composition of the Ewald Kern palace in Piotrkowska or upon the facade of Heinzel's residence in the same street, unique in its own kind. A steam pressure-meter,
a spindle turned into attractive ornaments, overtly symbolic of the source of the Łódź fortunes, praising the ethos of labor. It is worth remembering about it when admiring those splendid facades today.

english | polski