Manufaktura the jewel in the crown

NOWHERE symbolises the economic revival of Lodz quite like Manufaktura, a hip shopping and entertainment complex on the site of the huge prison-like textile factories that once employed thousands of workers.

Cafes, clubs, bars and dozens of shops now fill the rooms where generations toiled.

Industrialist Izrael Poznanski took pride in his personal kingdom and had an architect design the complex in the late 1800s with smart red brick and fine detail in the facades. However, the chaos of two world wars destroyed the business and when the State later took over the complex, it got a swift Soviet make-over.