Łódź Voivodeship (Polish: województwo łódzkie [vɔjɛˈvut͡stfɔ ˈwut͡skʲɛ] ) is a voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province is named after its capital and largest city, Łódź (pronounced [wut͡ɕ]).
Łódź Voivodeship is bordered by six other voivodeships: Masovian to the north and east, Świętokrzyskie to the south-east, Silesian to the south, Opole to the south-west, Greater Poland to the west, and Kuyavian-Pomeranian for a short stretch to the north. Its territory belongs to three historical provinces of Poland – Masovia (in the east), Greater Poland (in the west) and Lesser Poland (in the southeast, around Opoczno).
Contents
Cities and towns
The voivodeship contains 11 cities and 35 towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (according to official figures for 31 December 2021):
Administrative division
Łódź Voivodeship is divided into 24 counties (powiats): 3 city counties and 21 land counties. These are further divided into 177 gminas.
The counties are listed in the following table (ordered within categories by descending population).
Protected areas
Protected areas in Łódź Voivodeship include seven Landscape Parks, as listed below.
Bolimów Landscape Park (partly in Masovian Voivodeship)
Łódź Hills Landscape Park
Przedbórz Landscape Park (partly in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship)
Spała Landscape Park
Sulejów Landscape Park
Warta-Widawka Landscape Park
Załęcze Landscape Park (partly in Silesian Voivodeship)
Economy
The gross domestic product (GDP) of the province was 26.7 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 6.0% of Polish economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 19,800 euros or 66% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was also 66% of the EU average.
History
The territory formed part of Poland since its establishment in the 10th century. The oldest medieval towns in the region include Biała Rawska, Brzeziny, Inowłódz, Łęczyca, Łowicz, Pajęczno, Radomsko, Rozprza, Sieradz, Wolbórz and Żarnów. Łęczyca, Rawa Mazowiecka, Sieradz and Wieluń became medieval ducal seats of the Piast dynasty. The current Łódź Voivodeship is roughly coextensive with the historic Łęczyca Land and Sieradz Land combined, and thus the Łęczyca and Sieradz voivodeships of the former Kingdom of Poland, although it also contains portions of Mazovia (in the north-east) and Lesser Poland (in the south-east). Piotrków Trybunalski, currently the second-largest city of the province, hosted many sessions of the Polish Parliament, the last in 1567, and was the seat of the Crown Tribunal for the Greater Poland Province, the highest appeal court in the Kingdom of Poland. The towns of Ozorków, Aleksandrów Łódzki, Zduńska Wola, Stryków, Konstantynów Łódzki, Zgierz, Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Łódź and Pabianice greatly developed during the Industrial Revolution after textile manufactures were founded there between 1807 and 1823, with Łódź eventually surpassing other towns in the region. Bolimów was the site of the Battle of Bolimów (31 January 1915) during World War I where gas weapons were used for the first time, when the German Army shelled Russian troops with xylyl bromide.
The capital of the Łódź Voivodeship has always been Łódź, but the area of land which it comprises has changed several times. The first was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Second Polish Republic in the years 1921–1939. In 1938 some western counties were ceded to Greater Poland Voivodeship (see: Territorial changes of Polish Voivodeships on 1 April 1938).
After the change, Łódź Voivodeship's area was 20,446 square kilometres (7,894 sq mi), and its population (as for 1931) was 2,650,100. It consisted of 15 powiats (counties):
Brzeziny county,
Końskie county,
Kutno county,
Łask county,
Łęczyca county,
Łowicz county,
Culture and education
The basic cultural activities in the Łódź Region are: monitoring activities of seven regional self-government cultural institutions, i.e., the Arthur Rubinstein Łódź Philharmonic, Museum of Art in Łódź (having one of the biggest modern art collections in Europe), the Opera House, Stefan Jaracz Theater, the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography, the Józef Piłsudski Regional and Municipal Public Library in Łódź, the Chamber of Culture in Łódź but also: supporting NGO’s, protection of monuments, awarding scholarships to young artists and rewards for the prominent artists. What is more, infrastructural projects are being undertaken. Among the most important investments are: the creation of four regional scenes in Stefan Jaracz Theatre, opening the new section of the Museum of Art in Łódź - ms² or the reconstruction of medieval settlement in Tum in the vicinity of Łęczyca.
As of 2020, there were 76,897 students in various institutions of higher education in Łódź Voivodeship. The major universities in the voivodeship are:
University of Łódź
Lodz University of Technology
National Film School in Łódź
Medical University of Łódź
Higher School of National Economy in Kutno
Academy of Fine Arts In Łódź
Jan Kochanowski University in Piotrków Trybunalski
The scientific staff of higher education establishments in Łódź are complemented by scientists from the Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and scientific ministerial institutes working within the field of occupational medicine, textile, paper and leather industries.
Sights and tourism
There are five Historic Monuments of Poland in the voivodeship:
Łowicz Cathedral
Industrial city landscape of Łódź
Nieborów Palace and park
Sulejów Abbey
Tum Collegiate Church
There are multiple either entirely or partly preserved castles in the province, including in Bąkowa Góra, Besiekiery, Bolesławiec, Drzewica, Inowłódz, Łęczyca, Opoczno, Oporów, Piotrków Trybunalski, Uniejów, and multiple palaces, including in Poddębice, Skierniewice, Sokolniki, Walewice, Wola-Chojnata and several in Łódź alone.
The province's sole spa town is Uniejów.
There are numerous World War II memorials, including a museum at the site of the former Nazi German Radogoszcz prison in Łódź, and monuments at the sites of German-perpetrated massacres and camps.
Sports
Football and volleyball enjoy the largest following in the province. ŁKS Łódź and Widzew Łódź contest the Łódź Derby, one of the fiercest football rivalries in Poland.
Since the establishment of the province, several international sports competitions were co-hosted by the province, including the EuroBasket 2009, 2009 Women's European Volleyball Championship, EuroBasket Women 2011, 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, and 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Curiosities
The Polish language of the inhabitants of the voivodeship is considered the closest to the Polish literary language, as the region did not develop its own dialect, but was a place of blending of dialects from the neighboring larger regions of Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Mazovia and Silesia.
In the 17th century, the towns of Brzeziny, Sieradz and Warta were home to sizeable Scottish communities.