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).
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):[4]
Towns:
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).[4]
Protected areas in Łódź Voivodeship include seven Landscape Parks, as listed below.
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.[5]
The territory formed part of Poland since its establishment in the 10th century. Oldest medieval towns in the region include Biała Rawska, Brzeziny, Inowłódz, Łęczyca, Łowicz, Pajęczno, Radomsko, Rozprza, Sieradz, Wolbórz and Żarnów.[6] 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,[7] 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.[8] 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 April 1, 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):
The largest cities of the voivodeship were (population according to the 1931 census):
Source: Mały rocznik statystyczny 1939, Nakładem Glownego Urzędu Statystycznego, Warszawa 1939 (Concise Statistical Year-Book of Poland, Warsaw 1939).
Wieluń was the site of the Bombing of Wieluń conducted by Germany on 1 September 1939, considered the first major bombing of World War II. During the war, the territory was occupied by Germany, with the occupiers committing their genocidal policies against Poles and Jews in the region, with expulsions, kidnapping of children, massacres of civilians and prisoners of war. Germany operated numerous prisons, including the particularly notorious in Łódź and Sieradz,[9] and forced labour camps. The Łódź Ghetto, the second-largest Jewish ghetto in all of German-occupied Europe, was located in Łódź. Warta was the location of Aktion T4 murders of over 500 mentally ill people.[10]
The next incarnation existed from 1945 until 1975 (although the city of Łódź was excluded as a separate City Voivodeship). This Łódź Voivodeship was then broken up, superseded by Łódź (see below), Sieradz, Piotrków Trybunalski, Skierniewice and partly Płock Voivodeships.
Łódź Voivodeship, also known as Łódź Metropolitan Voivodeship (województwo miejskie łódzkie), existed from 1975 until 1998, after which it was incorporated into today's Łódź Voivodeship. Until 1990, the mayor of the city of Łódź was also the voivodeship governor.
As of 1995, major cities and towns in Łódź Metropolitan Voivodeship included (with their 1995 populations):
The current Łódź Voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź Voivodeship (1975–1999) and the Sieradz, Piotrków Trybunalski and Skierniewice Voivodeships and part of Płock Voivodeship, pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998.
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.[11] The major universities in the voivodeship are:
The excellent scientific staff of the higher education establishments in Łódź is complemented by Łódź’s scientists from the Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and scientific ministerial institutes working within the field of the occupational medicine, textile, paper and leather industries.
There are five Historic Monuments of Poland in the voivodeship:
There are multiple castles in the province, including in Drzewica, Inowłódz, Łęczyca, Opoczno, Oporów, Piotrków Trybunalski, Uniejów, and multiple palaces, including in Poddębice, Skierniewice, 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.
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.
