Parks & Nature
Open
a 17-hectare 1950s park on the former Jewish market district, its nickname recalling the prewar fish market
Parks & Nature
Open
a twelve-hectare park in Bałuty from 1881, home to a zoo with bears and monkeys until 1945
Parks & Nature
Open
a 1961-1964 park in Bałuty on former ghetto grounds, home to the Broken Heart Monument
Parks & Nature
Open
a memorial park for survivors of the Łódź ghetto, opened in 2004, with the Mound of Remembrance
The Doły district in Bałuty has four parks where greenery is intertwined with a difficult history - most of them were created on the site of the former Łódź Ghetto, serving as places of both remembrance and everyday recreation.
Staromiejski Park, bordered by Zachodnia, Ogrodowa, Północna, Franciszkańska and Wolborska streets, is one of the larger parks in the centre of Łódź, known to locals by the informal name Park Śledzia (Herring Park), after the former fish market that operated on the site before the war. In 1941 the Germans demolished a large part of that area, marking out the southern boundary of the Łódź Ghetto here.
Szare Szeregi Park, laid out between 1961 and 1964 over more than ten hectares, combines everyday neighbourhood recreation with the Monument of the Broken Heart. Park Ocalałych (Survivors' Park), at Wojska Polskiego 83, opened in 2004 on the 60th anniversary of the liquidation of the ghetto, commemorates the survivors of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto with trees planted in honour of their families.
Park Helenów, covering 12 hectares, was founded in 1881 by the Anstadt family, owners of the neighbouring brewery, and until 1945 it housed a zoo with bears and a chimpanzee. Today it's mainly a place for a walk, once celebrated in verse by Julian Tuwim.
Where does the name Park Śledzia come from? From the former fish market that operated on the site before the war.
Is there still a zoo in Park Helenów? No, the zoo only operated until 1945 and was later dismantled.
More greenery in Łódź is shown on the parks and nature in the Łódź region page, the full list of the district's attractions on the attractions in Doły page, and all of Łódź's attractions in the attractions in Łódź section. A map of all the sites is shown on the attractions map.
