Tickets to a Museum
Manufaktura means an infinite variety of leisure opportunities, also thanks to three museums located here. Their offer is addressed to all interested in the history of Łódź and the empire of the Cotton King, Izrael Poznański, but also in visual arts and the avant-garde legend of the city.
If you wish to peer into Manufaktura’s history book, you may find it worthwhile to visit the Museum of the Factory. Exhibits collected here, including still operating mechanical looms, help visitors picture the life in the 19th century. The Museum’s permanent exhibition recalls events in Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański’s life and his work, and also documents what happened to his factory later. At the Museum of the Factory you may learn about the history of the Poznańskis’ industrial fortune, expansion of the factory, cotton fabric manufacturing technique, long way cotton covers from plantation, through a factory, to a fabric store, and everyday drudgery of ancient workers. Photos, documents, films, architectural plans, samples of raw materials and factory products are here to bear witness to old times.
From the Museum’s observation deck you can admire the panorama of Manufaktura, so it pays to start your tour around the complex here.
Now we can move to the Museum of the City of Lodz, located in one the grandest buildings in the city, the former Palace of Izrael Poznański. This monumental mansion is a flagship of Łódź and a testimony to how powerful was the city in the 19th century. Rooms in the Palace of the “Łódź Cotton Tycoon” are decorated in a Historicistic style, typical for the art at the turn of the 20th century, with some Art Nouveau decorations applied. If you want to truly revel in the atmosphere of sumptuousness and wealth, you should take a peek in all nooks of the Palace. On your tour you may come across traces of great citizens of Łódź, watch unique works of art and sophisticated utilitarian products. Here begins a long tale about the city’s history and culture and its prominent citizens involved in music, literature, theatre and fine arts.
The third museum is the youngest branch of the Museum of Art in Łódź, which resides in the historic building of the 19th-century weaving mill. ms2 is mainly a place of experimental work with The 20th and 21st Century Art Collection. The Museum’s unique holdings are exhibited on 3,000 m2. The works are not arranged simply according to a timeline. Chronology was replaced by groups of concepts, which allows the works to reveal messages important for us here and now. 600 m2 in the new building are dedicated to temporary exhibitions. There are also other rooms, designed for educational activities, performances, meetings with artists and films shows.
The Museum invites artists, designers and architects to cooperate and develop projects meant precisely for the ms2 building. Realizations created that way are then included in The 20th and 21st Century Art Collection. The building hosts also a café and an artistic bookshop.