On March 1, at 6 PM we would like to invite you to the promotion of the book “Lodz. Palaces and villas” and the meeting with its authors: professor Krzysztof Stefański and Jacek Kusiński.
The publication widely presents factory owners’ residences of Lodz and their interiors – a marvellous heritage of an artistic brilliance in the era of exceptionally fast-paced industrialization at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, whose dynamics could only be compared to that of American cities. The book contains photographs of 62 residences including the Scheibler’s Palace (which is home to the Film Museum) and the houses of other prominent textile potentates families: Poznanski, Heinzl, Kindermann and Biedermann as well as other less known but noteworthy places.

Translators Jonathan West and James West will also participate in the meeting. They will present a short presentation concerning linguistic and cultural differences in understanding the notion of “palace” between Anglo-Saxon countries and Poland.

“Lodz is the only city in Poland and one of the few in Europe which has such a large number of industrialists’ residences featured by a great diversity in their architecture and interior design. This stylistic plurality is characteristic of historicism – artistic period that dominated European and Polish art since the 1830s until the first decade of the next century. Historicism incorporated motifs from previous art periods and was enriched by new forms and styles that emerged in the beggining of the 20th century: Art Nouveau, Early Modernism, Neoclassicism and Art Deco. The nteriors were filled with abundant furnishings which consisted of decorative furniture and equipment as well as works of art – paintings and sculptures” – writes professor Stefański.

Admission free