Murals

The Łódź region, and above all the city of Łódź, has one of the largest mural collections in Europe - dozens of large-format works by artists from around the world, mostly from the Urban Forms festival, painted on blind factory and tenement walls since 2009. Łódź has its own, longer list on the page murals in Łódź - here we gather murals from the whole region: where they stand, who painted them and what they show, including works in Zduńska Wola, Zgierz, Sieradz and Łowicz.

Where are most of the murals in Łódź - Śródmieście and Piotrkowska

Murals are densest around Piotrkowska Street and the neighbouring streets of Śródmieście (the city centre). At Piotrkowska 152 itself, the mural "Łódka" ("Little Boat") by Meisal and Barys has hung there since 2001, covering nearly a thousand square metres of facade, and at Piotrkowska 71 there is the fresco "Łódź w Pigułce" ("Łódź in a Nutshell") by Krzysztof Jaśkiewicz, showing 31 figures of people who made the city's history. Opposite the Philharmonic, on Sienkiewicza Street, stands the colourful, geometric portrait of Artur Rubinstein by the Brazilian Eduardo Kobra - one of the most photographed murals in the city.

A little further on, at aleja Kościuszki 27, there is "Bang" by the German SAT ONE and the Polish duo Etam Cru from 2011 - a scene of a falling boy blending abstraction with surrealism. Etam Cru painted two more murals in Łódź: at Nawrot 81 a leaning traphouse from 2012, and together with Robert Proch a mural on a car park in the OFF Piotrkowska zone from 2016.

Murals from the Urban Forms festival - foreign artists in the centre

At Kilińskiego 26 hangs "Sentir" by Alexis Diaz from Puerto Rico, where a heart merges with a dragonfly and a tree in a technique resembling ink. The Belgian ROA painted black-and-white weasels at Nowomiejska 5 in his recognisable style, and the Chilean INTI left two works in Łódź: "I Believe in Goats" on a tower block at Wyszyńskiego 80, and a traveller figure in traditional Andean dress in the Polesie district. The Spaniard ARYZ signed his name in the city three times - solo at Politechniki 16 ("Still Life"), at Pomorska 67 (the pastel "Love Letter"), and together with the Brazilians OS GEMEOS at Roosevelta 5, where they painted a pair of dancing figures.

The Chinese artist DALeast left two murals in Łódź made of characteristic thin lines resembling branches: a deer at Łąkowa 10 and a wave with a bird at the corner of Pomorska and Wierzbowa. The Brazilian NUNCA, whose work has been shown at Tate Modern, painted an Amazon jungle with figures of forest natives at Narutowicza 25, and the Spaniard VHILS created a woman's face carved with a drill into the plaster down to the brick at Kopernika 28 - the first mural of this kind in Poland.

Illusionistic murals - three dimensions on a flat wall

At Pomorska 93 there is the first three-dimensional mural in Poland by the Italian Awer, whose full effect is visible only through ChromaDepth glasses. A similar trick, but without glasses, is used by the Russian Viktor Puzin - his mural at Pomorska 84 creates the illusion of depth purely through the play of light and shadow, visible from outside the building. The mural by Peeta on Rynek Bałucki works in a similar way - the Italian artist achieves a three-dimensional illusion through shading alone, with no optical tricks. The Spaniard Okuda painted a student dormitory at Lumumby 12 with a multicoloured, three-dimensional pattern to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Erasmus Student Network.

More well-known works in Łódź

The list of Urban Forms murals is longer than a single route. In Stare Polesie hangs a mural by the Spanish group BOA MISTURA with a quote from a novel by Jerzy Kosiński - the first of its kind in Poland. At Pomorska 67 the Spaniard Gonzalo Borondo painted monumental figures in a style inspired by Goya, and at Żwirki 8 TATS CRU from New York left a composition nearly 800 metres long featuring the flag of Łódź. It is also worth seeking out "Primavera" by SAINER, the abstraction by PENER, and the figures by ZBIOK. At Rybna 2/4 in the Bałuty district, cubist forms were painted by OTECKI, and in Chojny by the Spaniard 3TTMAN. The full list is on the page murals in Łódź.

Historical murals - the ghetto, the workers' uprising, Łódź creators

In the area of the former ghetto, on aleja Pamięci Ofiar Litzmannstadt Getto (Avenue of the Memory of the Victims of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto), two black-and-white portraits unveiled on the 75th anniversary of the Great Szpera stand side by side: a girl and a boy, both on the route along which deported children walked to Radegast station. At Rewolucji 1905 r. 58, the black-and-white mural by the group Takie Pany recreates scenes of workers' demonstrations from 1905-1907, with the flags of the PPS and the Bund. Also dedicated to Łódź creators are: a portrait of Władysław Strzemiński at Nowomiejska 10, based on a design by Tadeusz Piechura, and "Polish Flowers" by Gregor on the Dom Literatury (House of Literature) at Roosevelta 17, a tribute to Julian Tuwim with a surreal cross-section of the poet's head. Etam Cru also painted at aleja Politechniki 16 an illustration for Tuwim's poem "In an Aeroplane", sixteen by twelve metres in size.

Social murals and everyday city life

On the hospice of the Gajusz Foundation at Dąbrowskiego 87 there is a girl on a flamingo-shaped swing, whose stars glow in the dark. The Americans from Hygienic Dress League painted a large pigeon at Miedziana 14 - a recurring motif in their work criticising consumerism, and the Pole LUMP created a black-and-white collage "Time Has Devoured Us" at Wólczańska 109 in a communist-era style, also a critique of advertising. The Russian Morik painted a woman right after an important phone call at Więckowskiego 9, and the Mexican Paola Delfin painted a portrait of a woman in purples and blues titled "Healing" at Brzechwy 3.

Murals outside the centre - Stare Polesie, Zarzew, Doły

Stare Polesie has its own cluster of works, including a mural by Egon Fietke on a historic factory at Kopernika 56 and the Australian, psychedelic figures by SHIDA (born in Łódź) at Wojska Polskiego 82 in the Doły district. On the roofs of two tower blocks in Zarzew, at Morcinka 2 and 4, a joint mural by five artists was created: Cekas, Chazme, Proembrion, Sepe and Tone. The Pole M-CITY left two stencil-technique works in the city: a fantastical house of pipes and chimneys at Legionów 19, and gear wheels inspired by the Centre Pompidou at Tuwima 16.

Murals outside Łódź - Zduńska Wola, Zgierz, Sieradz and Łowicz

Street art in the region does not end in Łódź. In the west, in Zduńska Wola, it is worth seeing the mural marking the city's 200th anniversary - seventy metres long in thirty-five panels telling its history, and the polychrome by Czesław Łacwik recreating the pre-war panorama from the town hall tower; the full list is on the page murals in Zduńska Wola. In the north, in Zgierz, at Długa 1A stands "Zgierz Open" - a mural with a synagogue and two churches, greeting visitors in German, Hebrew and Russian as a voice against xenophobia, and at Długa 58/60 there is a mural marking the centenary of the State Police; the full list is on the page murals in Zgierz. In the west, in Sieradz, on the town hall building there is a portrait of Antoni Cierplikowski, the inventor of the bob haircut, born in this town, and in the west, in Łowicz, in Park na Błoniach, a mural on a pumping station turns the technical building into an underwater aquarium; the full list is on the page murals in Łowicz.

In practice: how to plan a mural walk

Most of the murals in central Łódź can be combined into a single walking route, since they cluster around Piotrkowska, aleja Kościuszki and Pomorska - a stretch of under two kilometres. The murals are outdoors and free to view at any time, but the best light for photos is in the morning or late afternoon, when the sun is not directly above the wall. In the rain the murals are still visible, though colours on wet plaster can look more intense. The route is worth combining with a visit to Manufaktura, where a fairy-tale underwater world by Mikołaj Rejs hangs on the market square.

FAQ - frequently asked questions about murals in the Łódź region

How many murals are there in Łódź?
The city alone has more than a hundred large-format murals, mostly from the Urban Forms festival held since 2009, plus a dozen or so more in smaller towns across the region.

Where can you see the most murals in one place?
Around Piotrkowska, aleja Kościuszki and Pomorska - within a radius of a few blocks there are more than a dozen works, including the portrait of Artur Rubinstein and the "Łódka" mural.

Which mural in Łódź is the most famous?
The colourful portrait of Artur Rubinstein by Eduardo Kobra on Sienkiewicza Street is usually named - opposite the Łódź Philharmonic, where the pianist once performed.

Are there any 3D murals in Łódź?
Yes - among others the three-dimensional mural by Awer at Pomorska 93, viewed with ChromaDepth glasses, and the murals by Viktor Puzin and Peeta, which play with the illusion of depth through shading alone.

Is the mural route suitable for children?
Yes, it is a walk along the pavements of the city centre with no entry fee and no opening hours - the route can be shortened or extended depending on a child's pace.

Street art is just one layer of the region - you will find atmospheric courtyards and squares in the atmospheric places category, historic factory architecture under monuments, and museums and galleries under culture. The full list of murals in Łódź itself is on the page murals in Łódź, more ideas for a walk around the centre are on the page discover Łódź, and for lovers of design and craft - in entertainment.