Three Bears

Three Bears is a small sculpture at the southern end of Piotrkowska, number 282, at the entrance to the Skansen Łódzkiej Architektury Drewnianej [Wooden Architecture Open-Air Museum]. It depicts characters from a puppet series made at the Łódź Se-ma-for studio and forms part of the Łódź Bajkowa [Fairy Tale Łódź] route.

What stands on the stone

Three bears – Misia, Bartek and Kuba – stand on top of a small erratic boulder. The sculpture is small, positioned at a child's height and designed so that visitors can stand beside it and take a photograph. The monument was created by Marcin Mielczarek, and the character design was by Tadeusz Wilkosz, the series director and set designer.

Unveiled on Teddy Bear Day

The ceremony took place on 25 November 2012, on World Teddy Bear Day. It was attended by Łódź's mayor Hanna Zdanowska and Tadeusz Wilkosz. This was the sixth monument on the Łódź Bajkowa route, following Teddy Bear Uszatek on Piotrkowska 87, the penguin Pik-Pok, the cats Philemon and Boniface, characters from The Enchanted Pencil and Plastus.

The series they come from

Three Bears is a Polish-Austrian puppet production from 1982 to 1986, made using stop-motion animation at the Se-ma-for Studio in collaboration with Apollo Film Austria. Twenty-six episodes were produced based on stories by Margarete Thiele, with Tadeusz Wilkosz as director and set designer; he had previously been responsible for, among other things, the appearance of Colargol the Bear.

Exact location

Piotrkowska 282 is the address of the former Biała Fabryka [White Factory] of Ludwik Geyer, which now houses the Centralne Muzeum Włókiennictwa [Central Museum of Textiles], with an open-air museum behind it featuring relocated wooden houses and villas. The bears stand at this entrance, not in the commercial part of the city centre.

The city centre is several kilometres away, so the sculpture is best seen as part of a longer walk along Piotrkowska or a visit to the museum.

The next stops on the fairy tale route are in other parts of the city. Four months after the bears, in March 2013, Wróbelek Ćwirek [Chirp the Sparrow] was unveiled in front of the Palmiarnia in Źródliska park.

In May of the same year, Maurycego i Hawranka [Maurice and Hawk Chick] was unveiled at the entrance to the zoological garden.

Practical information

• Address: Piotrkowska 282, at the Skansen Łódzkiej Architektury Drewnianej within the grounds of the Centralne Muzeum Włókiennictwa.
• Getting there: by tram towards Chojny, stop near Piotrkowska and Pabianicka; by car via al. Politechniki.
• What to expect: a few minutes at the sculpture, which stands in an open area, is accessible at all times and requires no ticket. Entry to the open-air museum and museum building is ticketed and has its own opening hours, which should be checked on the museum website before visiting.
• The Łódź Bajkowa route stamp is available at Łódzki Park Kultury Miejskiej on Piotrkowska 282 and at Łódzka Informacja Turystyczna on Piotrkowska 28.