Łódź

Łódź means boat, but no river here was ever deep enough to float one. It is a fair introduction to a city that arrived out of nowhere, in the middle of nowhere, and has had to prove itself ever since. Two hundred years ago, eighteen small rivers and a large amount of ambition turned a village into a boomtown of cotton and chimneys.

Many visitors pass through on the way to somewhere else, which suits Łódź, because it can have a cuckle at itself. Locals call the main street Pietryna. A palace is nicknamed the Louvre of Łódź. And the film school earned the city a name of its own: HollyŁódź.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours walk Piotrkowska Street and slip through the gates of the Poznański mill, where the factory siren has given way to the longest fountain in Europe. Wait for the noon bugle call. Sit a while by the Fountain of Love. Łódź is in no hurry, and neither are you.

Plug in your earbuds and let Łódź tell you how it got here.