Dętka Canal Museum

The Dętka Canal Museum is a branch of the Museum of the City of Łódź located in a historic water reservoir in the shape of a torus, hidden beneath Plac Wolności. The museum presents the history of sewerage and water supply in Łódź from the time of its industrialisation, telling a compelling story of infrastructure without which modern cities would be impossible.

Dętka – nineteenth-century technical genius

The Dętka reservoir was built in 1926 beneath Plac Wolności in Śródmieście, Łódź. The designer was William Heerlein Lindley, the great engineer responsible for all of the city's water and sewerage infrastructure, and the work was supervised by Stefan Skrzywań. The reservoir is ring-shaped (a torus) with a capacity of 300 cubic metres, a length of 142 metres, a height of 187 centimetres and a width of approximately 1.5 metres. It served the function of collecting water for periodic flushing of the sewerage network in the city centre – an engineering solution that made it possible to maintain hygiene and public safety.

From infrastructure to museum

The Dętka Canal Museum opened to the public on 30 April 2008, with the official opening of the exhibition taking place the day before, on 28 April. The exhibition design was developed by architect Maciej Słowiński, and the display was curated by Robert Kuśmirowski. The team created a space combining the history of technology with the visitor's experience. The museum's exhibition presents objects, documents and archival photographs illustrating the fascinating development of Łódź's sewerage and water supply network over the course of decades.

Architecture and underground access

The above-ground part of the museum is a modern glass pavilion located in the northern part of Plac Wolności, between the monument to Tadeusz Kościuszko and Nowomiejska street. The glass structure protects the entrance to the underground whilst also drawing on the modern contrast between past and present. All visitors enter through this pavilion and descend into the depths, where at a depth of approximately 5 metres a fascinating world of former Łódź infrastructure awaits them.

Practical information

• Address: Plac Wolności, Śródmieście, Łódź (entrance through the glass pavilion in the northern part of the square)
• Opening hours: the museum is open seasonally – we recommend checking exact hours on the Museum of the City of Łódź website
• Getting there: city centre Łódź, Plac Wolności, excellent public transport access – bus and tram stops near the square
• Nearby: Łódź Fabryczna railway station, Piotrkowska Centrum / Stajnia Jednorożców, monument to Tadeusz Kościuszko
• What to expect: descent of over 5 metres underground, a walk through a historic water reservoir, the opportunity to step away from the contemporary world and discover fascinating stories about engineering, archival photographs of canals, documents from the history of water supply in Łódź