Lodz comes over like a grey, battered post-communist backwater living in the shadow of its resplendent past.

The second largest city in Poland, in the 19th century, Lodz was a prosperous industrial centre and cosmopolitan metropolis.

The city fell under Nazi occupation during World War II and the city's Jews (35% of the population) were herded into a ghetto and all but annihilated in nearby death camps, primarily Auschwitz-Birkenau. With them died Lodz's spirit and thriving textile industry.