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Situated in central Poland in the Łódź Highlands, the Łódź province boasts numerous places which are worth seeing for their geographical location, surroundings of scenic beauty, and relations to the history of Poland and the history of the region’s industrial development. There are numerous examples of palace architecture in the Łódź province (including such palace complexes as in Nieborów, Walewice and Wolbórz), manor house architecture (Poddębice, Ożarów), fortified architecture (medieval castle towns and castles, World War II bunkers in Jeleń and Konewka), castles and their ruins (Oporów, Łęczyca), 19th century mills as well as sacred buildings in various styles (with some churches dating back to the 12th century). Among natural and recreational attractions there are picturesque valleys of the Pilica and Warta rivers, the Pilica forest, the "Niebieskie Źródła" (Blue Springs) reserve (Tomaszów Mazowiecki) and the right-bank tributaries of the Bzura river as well as the Rawka river flowing through the Bolimowska Wilderness. The province also features several strictly protected areas which include reserves (about 65 in number) and landscape parks with the Łódź Hills Landscape Park being an example. There are also unique peat bogs, marshes and examples of caves and caverns. The Bełchatów brown coal mine with its opencast pit, which is seen from the space, is the only manmade facility of this kind in Poland. Łódź, the capital of the province, used to be an important country's centre for textile industry for almost two centuries. It was just textile industry that transformed Łódź into one of the world’s most rapidly developing cities in the nineteenth century. Numerous textile factories provided employment for a great number of residents and thus fostered the whole region’s development. Known as “the promised land", Łódź became a real home to thousands of settlers from all over Europe. In Łódź, as in a huge melting pot, languages, cultures, religions and national customs melted thus building the wealth of the city and giving it its unique character of the town with villas and mansion houses surrounded by parks and situated next to huge factories, with the city centre tenements drawing on the styles of bygone epochs, with vast working-class housing estates mushrooming somewhere in the background. Until today the nineteenth-century architecture marks out the city, highlights its post-industrial character and certainly attracts attention of tourists. It also inspires new owners, who by revitalising long abandoned buildings give them new functions. The Łódź region features a unique and rich history, also many interesting, varied and worth seeing spots. |
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