The White Factory – a Trip to the Heritage Park

Geyer's White Factory is probably known to every resident of Łódź. It is one of the oldest monuments of industrial architecture in Poland, standing at 282 Piotrkowska Street in Łódź. Unlike the other red-brick factories, it reigns over them with its elegance and lightness.

The most interesting site that caught my attention recently is the White Factory's heritage park. You enter the park by passing through a great steel gate set into an enormous brick wall. As you walk through it, you feel as if you are stepping into another world. You hear the voices of workers, the clatter of steam machines. Time has rolled back several decades.

The complex of wooden buildings was relocated from the city's streets to a park between Piotrkowska 282 and Milionowa Street. The way in leads through the Museum of Textiles. As you enter the heritage park you feel silence, peace. All your electronic gadgets fall silent. They are useless here. Apart from birdsong and the rustle of trees, all you hear from time to time is the click of a camera shutter.

At first glance, at the end of the lane, your eye is caught by a more than 200-year-old larch-wood church, relocated from Nowosolna Street. It is one of the best-preserved structures. Its original green-and-yellow colours have been restored.

Walking slowly towards the little church you pass the houses of workers and craftsmen. Beautifully restored wooden buildings. You look through the windows, but for now you can only see empty rooms. Perhaps furniture from the old days will appear there soon? The houses were moved from Wólczańska, Żeromskiego, Kopernika and Mazowiecka streets.

At an unhurried pace you reach the church. Above its entrance hangs a large clock. Calmly it measures out the time. Out of the corner of your eye you notice a beautiful villa.

It is a summer villa, relocated from Scaleniowa Street. Just a few years ago it stood in a pitiful state in Ruda Pabianicka. Ravaged for years by vandals, today it proudly displays its beauty.

You walk all the way around it. Chestnuts lie everywhere. Children who have come for a walk with their parents gather them with great delight. I pick one up myself too. A keepsake of a pleasant outing. And there are plenty of them. Now and then it is worth looking up at the villa.

The villa's wooden walls are beautiful. And the ornamented windows especially so. Looking higher, you can see the soaring roof. It almost makes you want to climb up into the building's attic.

On the way back I met the dog that guards the heritage park. It lay in its kennel, cheerfully wagging its tail. It was very friendly and even let me pet it. It was not keen to pose for a photo, though. It would hide in its kennel and wag its tail in there.

One last glance at another wing of the factory. Time to head home. You step out again through the great gate. Your watch starts ticking, your phone picks up a signal. You are back in the city. You have travelled through time, back to the present.