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Lodz is located in the very centre of Poland, and still remains particularly favourable for the development of trade. The landscape can be described as being rather flat, as Lodz lies on the Central Poland Lowland area, and there are only few moraine hills on its outskirts to offset this. Although the city name means “boat” in Polish, there are no particularly large bodies of water or rivers nearby. Lodz lies on the border between the catchment areas of the Vistula and the Odra Rivers, so locally there are only some smaller rivers and brooks and these are usually hidden underground. Of course, there are still many diverse parks and woods nearby in which to commune with nature.

Lodz was once a small village that first appears in written records in 1332. In 1423 it was granted town rights, but it still remained a rather small and insubstantial town. It was the property of Kuiavian bishops until the end of the 18th century, when Lodz passed to Prussia as a result of the second partition of Poland. After spending about ten years within the borders of the independent Duchy of Warsaw, the city joined the Russian-controlled Polish Kingdom. The 19th century brought with it constant industrial development for Lodz. The first cotton mill was opened in 1825 and soon the city grew into being the most powerful textile centre in the Russian Empire. Workers came from all over Europe, creating a multinational population with three dominating groups: Poles, Jews and Germans (in the 1930s the proportions of these nationalities was approximately 50%, 30% and 15%). During Lodz’s peak of prosperity its population was doubling every ten years. Due to the industrial background...