Stary Rynek was once the whole of Łódź. Six centuries ago it was the market square of a farming village of a few hundred people, its lanes lined with wooden houses built from the surrounding forest.

Then cotton arrived, and the city was planned from scratch on open ground to the south. The old quarter was left behind, and under Russian rule it became the place where Jewish newcomers were confined. Tenements and street traders filled the lanes, and a synagogue stood a few metres from the square. In 1940 the ghetto fence ran just metres away, and the market area beside it was levelled.

Today’s square is postwar Socialist Realist, remodelled in 2024. Two VoiceMap tours stop here: one shows how the Old Town was overtaken by the new city, the other begins the story of the Łódź Ghetto at its edge.