Park im. A. Mickiewicza / Park Julianowski

Park im. Adama Mickiewicza, also known as Park Julianowski, stretches across 49.4 hectares along the Sokołówka river valley in Bałuty, in the area of the Julianów district. It was created as a private manor park; today it is public urban greenery with heritage tree stands, two water reservoirs and recreational infrastructure.

Manufacturer Heinzl's manor park

The land was laid out in 1885-1892 on the initiative of Juliusz Heinzl, a Łódź manufacturer, who established it as a park adjacent to his own residence. The boundaries of the park are today defined by Zgierska, Sowińskiego, Jaworowa, Folwarczna streets, Róż and Karłowicza avenues, and the area itself lies in a natural depression through which the Sokołówka flows.

Destroyed palace and traces of war

A palace inspired by Italian Renaissance, built around 1890, once stood by the park. In September 1939 it housed the staff of the Łódź Army, which is why on 6 September the building was shelled and later blown up by German occupiers. From the same period comes a bunker, built by the Germans in 1942-1944 and preserved in the park to this day. The history of Łódź's Radogoszcz and war memorials is brought closer by the nearby Museum of Independence Traditions, Martyrology of Radogoszcz branch.

Nature monuments and water

Within the park grows twenty trees listed as nature monuments, among them an almost two-hundred-year-old oak called Kosynier. Water is regulated by two reservoirs: the flow-through Zgierski reservoir and the Teresa reservoir, which control the course of the Sokołówka across the park. The entire area was entered in the register of monuments in 1984.

Recreation and sport

From the 1950s comes an amphitheatre with a concert shell. The park also has courts for volleyball, basketball and football, a slope used in winter by sledders and in summer by mountain cyclists, and a network of walking paths running along the Sokołówka valley and around both water reservoirs. Some sources also mention a parachute jump tower, used by the Air League.

Julianów as part of Bałuty

The park lies within the Julianów district in the Bałuty neighbourhood, in a place where the city terrain slopes towards the river valley. The terrain's shape, unusual for a Łódź park, is a direct result of its original function as a park attached to a manufacturer's residence, arranged using the natural depression of the ground.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Zgierska 139A, 91-488 Łódź, Bałuty district (Julianów district)
• Manager: Zarząd Zieleni Miejskiej Łódź (Municipal Greenery Authority)
• Access: from Zgierska street, near Łódź Arturówek station
• What to expect: extensive landscape park with heritage old trees, two water reservoirs, courts and amphitheatre; opening hours and any entry restrictions should be checked before a visit