Gallery of Great Łódź Citizens

On Piotrkowska Street you can sit on a bench next to the poet Julian Tuwim, lean on Arthur Rubinstein's piano, or pull up a chair at a table with the textile tycoons Karl Scheibler and Izrael Poznański. The Gallery of Great Łódź Citizens (Galeria Wielkich Łodzian) is a set of six bronze monuments designed so you can sit with them and take a photo. They were created between 1999 and 2007 on the initiative of local cultural organiser Marcel Szytenchelm, funded by sponsors and from his own pocket – and they have stirred feelings from the start.

The six monuments

• Tuwim's Bench (1999, Piotrkowska 104), by Wojciech Gryniewicz, in front of City Hall. The poet holds "Polish Flowers", the poem in which he wrote of his longing for his native Łódź. Local legend says rubbing his nose brings luck.
• Rubinstein's Piano (2000, Piotrkowska 78), outside the house where the pianist spent his childhood. The raised lid resembles a bird's wing, with a treble clef beside it.
• Reymont's Trunk (2001, Piotrkowska 137) – to people in Łódź, the Nobel Prize winner is above all the author of "The Promised Land", a novel about industrial Łódź.
• Founders of Industrial Łódź, known as the Factory Owners' Table (2002, Piotrkowska 30/32): Karl Scheibler and Izrael Poznański sit at the table, with Henryk Grohman standing beside them.
• Jaracz's Armchair (2006, Piotrkowska 152) – the actor Stefan Jaracz worked at the Łódź Municipal Theatre from 1908 to 1911.
• The Lamplighter (2007, Piotrkowska 37), marking 100 years of electricity in Łódź: in 1907 the city power station opened on ul. Targowa, now home to the EC1 cultural centre.

Did you know?

• The piano that fell silent. Drop in a coin and a mechanism inside the monument used to play Chopin, Tchaikovsky and other pieces. It was switched off after Sony BMG demanded royalties.
• A daughter's protest. Eva Rubinstein, on behalf of the family, protested against the monument as an insult to her father's memory and for six years refused to come to Łódź for events in his honour.
• Battle over quality. Artists have criticised the sculptures as amateurish. In 2013, during the renovation of Piotrkowska, a petition called for their removal, but after a public debate the mayor announced that the gallery would return to the street because residents identify with it.
• The Lamplighter stands where the American Diamant Palace shop once was – as early as 1906 its window was lit by electric lamps powered by a generator in the basement of the nearby Grand Hotel.

Tripto tip

The gallery is free and open at all times. The easiest route runs south from Plac Wolności, following the house numbers: start with the Factory Owners' Table (30/32) and the Lamplighter (37) and finish at Jaracz's Armchair (152). Allow about an hour, photo stops included. Cafés and arcades line the way, so it is easy to duck inside if it rains.