Must see attractions in Łódź

Top ChoiceSights in Łódź

Łódź's Jewish cemetery was founded in 1892 and today is a haunting destination. The largest Jewish graveyard in Europe, it contains around 68,000 surviving memorials, including the huge, domed Poznanski family mausoleum. The area known as Ghetto Field (Polem Gettowym) is the final resting place for 43,000 victims of the wartime ghetto. From the Doły tram stop, walk due west on a small lane to cobbled ul Zmienna and the cemetery entrance. It's about a 300m walk.

Sights in Łódź

Radegast station on the north side of Łódź was the main deportation centre for Jews being sent to the extermination camps at Chełmno and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The station has been preserved and now holds a memorial to those lost in the Holocaust. Displays detail life in the ghetto and delve into the lives of some of the 145,000 people sent to their deaths from this station. It's about a 1km walk northwest from either the Doly tram stop or the Jewish Cemetery.

Top ChoiceSights in Łódź

Adjacent to the Manufaktura mall, this museum is housed in the impressive palace of 19th-century textile baron Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański. The opulent apartments are a clear indication of the Poznańskis' wealth, bedecked with elaborate dark-wood wall panelling, delicate stained-glass windows and a grand ballroom. Despite taking a back seat to the building itself, the 1st-floor exhibitions are interesting, covering famous Łódź citizens such as pianist Artur Rubinstein and writer Jerzy Kosiński, while those in the basement cover the city's history.

Sights in Łódź

Now a branch of the Museum of Art, this building started life in 1875 as a grand villa of the Herbst family. Although the owners fled before WWII, taking all the furnishings and art with them, the interior has been restored and furnished like the original, giving an insight into how barons of industry once lived. There's also a separate exhibition of Polish and European art from the 15th to early 20th centuries (adult/child 10/5zł).

Sights in Łódź

The centrepiece of Łódź's plan to redevelop the city centre around Łódź Fabryczna train station, EC1 takes its name from its original incarnation as the city's first heating and power plant (Elektro-Ciepłownia 1). Opened in 1906 and closed down in 2000, the coal-fired power station, cooling tower and ancillary buildings have been beautifully renovated and adapted to house the Centre for Science & Technology, a planetarium and the National Centre for Film Culture (slated to open in 2020).

Top ChoiceSights in Łódź

Part of the EC1 complex that forms the heart of Łódź's city centre redevelopment plan, this former coal-fired power station (dating from the early 1900s) has been restored and repurposed as an awe-inspiring museum. Here you can explore the dissected heart of the giant furnaces and boilers, and interact with hands-on exhibits that explain fundamental scientific principles ranging from atomic physics to electromagnetism to optics. Guides are on hand to answer questions.

Sights in Łódź

The work of designer Joanna Rajkowska, a typical Łódź courtyard passage has been completely lined with mirror fragments arranged in swirling floral patterns; truly spectacular.

Sights in Łódź

Created by the Portuguese artist Artur Bordalo, this giant image of a common swift (Latin name Apus apus) has been constructed from discarded plastic and metal rubbish.

Sights in Łódź

A collaboration between Brazilian muralists Osgemeos and Spanish street artist Aryz, this weird and wonderful artwork displays a literal mating of styles.

Top ChoiceSights in Łódź

A courtyard brilliantly covered in the fantastical imaginings of Polish artist Wojciech Siudmak – imps, harlequins and brightly coloured birds.

Sights in Łódź

This colourful mural captures the impish sense of humour of Łódź's most famous son, the classical pianist Artur Rubinstein (1887–1982).

Top ChoiceSights in Łódź

A crowd-pleasing gaggle of weasels cavort on the side of a building in this moral by ROA.

Sights in Łódź

Seemingly designed for kids and high-school science nerds, this interactive science museum in Manufaktura is a blast at any age. The exhibits are built around staid subjects such as chemistry and astronomy, but the displays encourage visitors to touch, play and learn. Explore the cosmic tunnel, laser games and optical illusions.

Sights in Łódź

Housed in the palatial home of 'Cotton King' Karol Scheibler, this attraction is actually two museums in one. The basement and 1st floor are devoted to the history of Polish cinema and contain props, film posters and archaic camera equipment connected to the city's cinematic past. Everything changes, however, once you reach the ground floor, where Scheibler's luxurious apartments – frequently used as film and TV sets – reveal the great wealth of 19th-century Łódź.

Sights in Łódź

This huge – and hugely impressive – shopping mall deserves to be listed as a tourist attraction in its own right. It's within a massive complex of red-brick buildings that was once a 19th-century textile mill belonging to Izrael Poznański, Łódź's wealthiest citizen. In addition to nearly every chain store familiar to EU residents, there are cafes, restaurants, a multiplex cinema, an Imax theatre, and several worthwhile museums. It gets thronged with weekend mall rats.

Sights in Łódź

This industrial museum within the Manufaktura complex shows Łódź factories at their productive best, when they made goods to be sold rather than served as venues for goods for sale. There are old textile machines, fascinating maps and a short video of the textile king himself, Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański. An observation deck allows you to survey Manufaktura, his factory empire.

Sights in Łódź

This gallery in the Manufaktura complex houses the city's impressive collection of experimental and avant-garde works from the 20th and 21st centuries. The setting, a former textile mill on the edge of the Manufaktura mall, is a treat. There's a good in-house cafe. A combined ticket for MS1, MS2 and Herbst Palace costs adult/child 30/20zł.

Sights in Łódź

Dig deeper into Łódź' industrial past at this museum located in Ludwig Geyer's gorgeous White Factory (Biała Fabryka), the city's oldest textile mill, dating from 1839. The collection consists of textile machinery, early looms and fabrics, clothing and other objects related to the industry.

Sights in Łódź

The original branch of the city's art museum is three blocks west of ul Piotrkowska, housed in the impressive palace that was once home to Maurycy Poznański (son of Izrael, of Manufaktura fame). It houses changing exhibitions of contemporary art, and is a venue for concerts and film screenings. A combined ticket for MS1, MS2 and Herbst Palace costs adult/child 30/20zł.

Sights in Łódź

The administrative heart of the Jewish ghetto, where the Gestapo and Mordechai Chaim Rumkowsi, the Jewish elder in charge of the ghetto, had their offices. In the market here, starving ghetto residents bartered their valuables for scraps of food.