There are places in Łódź that you could easily walk past without giving them a second thought.
Stefan Skrzywan Park is one of them.
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| Stefan Skrzywan Park in Łódź |
It is small, tucked away between Wólczańska Street and Stefana Skrzywana Street, and at first glance it doesn't look like the sort of place you would come to specifically to see.
There are trees, a path running through the park and a few quiet corners. Nothing particularly spectacular.But Łódź has a habit of hiding its history in places like this.
The older I looked, the more I realised that this little patch of greenery was connected with several different stories – industrial families, a forgotten villa, an old gardener's house and, of course, Stefan Skrzywan himself, the engineer who played an important role in bringing a modern water and sewage system to Łódź.
And suddenly, the park didn't seem quite so ordinary.
A small park with an older story
Stefan Skrzywan Park is a remnant of the much larger green surroundings that once belonged to a villa near the industrial buildings of the Hüffer family.
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| Sony A7sII, Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 |
The park still has some beautiful mature trees, which make it feel surprisingly peaceful considering where it is. It is not a large city park where you would spend an afternoon. It feels more like a forgotten piece of an old estate that somehow survived as the city grew around it.
And that is probably what I like about it.
You don't immediately see the history. You have to notice the details.
The old trees are one of them.
The villa hidden behind the greenery is another.
The mysterious villa in the park
One of the most interesting things here is the villa at Wólczańska 243.
It is often referred to as the Villa Hüffer, although its history is a little more complicated than that name suggests. The property was connected with the Hüffer family, but the villa itself belonged to Karol Bennich the younger. The land was sold by members of the Hüffer family, and the exact circumstances and date of the villa's construction are not completely clear.
That uncertainty actually makes the building even more fascinating.
The villa has a rather unusual, almost fairy-tale appearance. It is hidden away from the street and surrounded by greenery, which makes it very easy to miss.
This is one of those Łódź buildings where you have to look twice.
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| Sony A7sII, Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 |
The city is full of grand factory palaces that stand directly on busy streets, but here the relationship between the building and the greenery is completely different. The villa sits almost like a secret behind the park.
Over the years the building had many different uses. Before the Second World War it was associated with the Bennich family. In the 1930s it became connected with the charitable foundation of Herman and Mina Konsztat, which established a shelter for Jewish intellectuals there. During the German occupation it was used by the Nazi women's organisation, and after 1945 it was nationalised and served various purposes, including a nursery, a kindergarten, a laboratory and offices connected with Wólczanka.
It is difficult to look at the villa today and imagine all those different chapters.
That is Łódź in a nutshell.
A beautiful villa, a factory nearby, a changing city and a building that somehow survives all of it.
Who was Stefan Skrzywan?
The park is named after Stefan Skrzywan, an engineer born in 1876 who became one of the key figures in the development of Łódź's water and sewage infrastructure.
When he arrived in Łódź in 1924, the city had a serious sanitation problem. A huge number of residents still had no access to a modern sewage system or reliable clean water. Open drains and polluted waterways were part of everyday life, and heavy rain could turn the streets into something very unpleasant indeed.
Skrzywan worked closely with the engineer William Heerlein Lindley, whose plans were fundamental to the development of Łódź's water and sewer system.
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| Sony A7sII, Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 |
In 1925, on Skrzywan's initiative, the Municipal Water and Sewerage Works were established. His work helped set in motion changes that would eventually transform the city's infrastructure.
It is quite fitting, then, that his name survives here in a place surrounded by the industrial landscape of old Łódź.
The city that he helped make cleaner and more modern grew around the factories, villas and streets that had existed before him.
There is even a gardener's house
Another small detail makes this place even more interesting.
Near the entrance to the park from Wólczańska Street stands an old gardener's house. According to local historical research, the building stood next to the former boundary between the city of Łódź and the village of Nowe Rokicie.
Today, that old boundary is almost impossible to imagine.
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| Sony A7sII, Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 |
There is no obvious line between one world and another. There is simply the city.
But once you know that this was once the edge of Łódź, the little house becomes much more interesting.
It is another reminder that the city we see today is much larger and more complicated than the Łódź of a hundred years ago.
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Sony A7sII, Sony FE 35mm f/1.8
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What I find particularly interesting about this part of the city is the contrast.
You have trees and an old villa on one side.
And then, almost immediately, there are traces of the industrial city.
The Hüffer factory complex was nearby. Old factory buildings, workers' spaces and streets connected with industry all belong to the same story.
Today some of those former industrial buildings have found completely different uses. Even the name of the nearby Skrzywana Factory recalls the history of the area, while a mural dedicated to Stefan Skrzywan can now be found at Skrzywana Street.
It feels very Łódź to me.
Nothing completely disappears.
A factory becomes offices.
A villa becomes something else.
A garden becomes a public park.
A street keeps the name of an engineer.
And the city simply continues to grow around it.
A park you might easily miss
Stefan Skrzywan Park is not the kind of place I would describe as a major tourist attraction in Łódź.
And honestly, I think that is part of its charm.
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| Sony A7sII, Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 |
You don't come here for a spectacular monument or a famous view. You come because you are interested in the bits of Łódź that are slightly hidden.
You walk beneath the old trees and realise that this was once part of a much larger estate.
You notice the villa behind the greenery.
You find the old gardener's house.
And then you look at the street name and start wondering who Stefan Skrzywan actually was.
Before you know it, a small city park has turned into a doorway into the history of Łódź.
For me, this is one of the things that makes exploring Łódź so rewarding.
You don't always have to go looking for the big landmarks.
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| Sony A7sII, Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 |
Sometimes the most interesting stories are hiding behind a fence, beneath an old tree or in a building that most people walk past every day.
And Stefan Skrzywan Park is exactly that kind of place.
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