Historic Villas in Łódź: Leon Allart

Once the international cradle of the textile industry, Łódź is marked by numerous representative villas of great 19th century industrialists such as Karl Wilhelm Scheibler or Izrael Poznański. The mighty Poznański Palace (Pałac Izraela Poznańskiego) in the center of the city is certainly one of the most impressive fabricant's houses in all of Poland.

In addition to these well-known entrepreneurial personalities, there were other textile manufacturers in Łódź who maintained large factories and are now known only to locals.

The picture shows the villa of French industrialist Léon Allart, co-owner of the Leon Allart & Rousseau cotton mill founded in 1878 at ul. Wróblewskiego 19. During World War II, the factory was occupied by BMW AG, which assembled aircraft engines there. After that, the nationalized textile factory existed until 1989. In 2005, the industrial wasteland was sold to a development company. Today, only fragments of this factory exist; the area has been largely deconstructed for future residential use.

Allart's monument-protected villa is located opposite the open space in the street Wróblewskiego 38, 90-001 Łódź. It was built in 1882 and modernized in the mid-20s in the spirit of Art Deco. In the post-war period it served as a kindergarten and offices, among other things. The interior architecture has been preserved to this day and features, among other things, original stained glass windows and four murals depicting peasant scenes. Since 2014, Willa Leona Allarta has a private owner and is equipped with a new copper sheet roof. The building is in good structural condition.





A surreal nuance is added to the exterior view by the towers of the former EC-2 cogeneration plant, which still exist in 2020. It was built in the 1950s on a site behind the residential building and has not been in operation since 2015. This multi-ha area is also currently (2021) under deconstruction.

Given the continuing need for residential development, it is difficult to hope that the surrounding area will regain some of its historic ambiance.

A nice article in Polish with extensive information can also be found here.