Vienna Creators in Łódź

At the turn of the 19. and 20. Century Łódź was not only a dynamically developing industrial city but it also grew up to be the important centre of Polish art and architecture. It became typical for this city to order designs of numerous buildings at foreign architects (mostly from Berlin) together with details of interior design and equipment (from Berlin and Wroclaw). Less frequent but artistically significant is the presence of buildings designed by artists deriving from Vienna. For example there are some interesting graves on cemeteries of Łódź manufactured by Vienna workshops. One of most important aspects or this matter is co-operation with Vienna architect Siegfried Stern during the realisation of neo-gothic catholic church of St Stanisław Kostka that was built from 1901 (nowadays it is arch-cathedral). For eight years Siegfried Stern prepared detailed architectural drawings, supervised the progress of work and even few times visited the town. It is worth to draw the attention to the similarity of mentioned church to a shape of cathedral in Linz that was build since 1862, following a design of Vinzent Statz. The works were resumed in 1902, when cathedral in Łódź was under construction. As from Stern’s letters we learn that he had known mentioned church in Linz, the correspondence of forms is not coincidental. Some other interesting examples of the presence of architects from Vienna in Łódź are Kindermann brothers’ residences (137/139 and 151 Piotrkowska Street) that were designed by Vienna architect Karl Seidl. Moreover there is an interesting mosaic on the facade of 137/139 Piotrkowska Street created by Hans Alois Schram - a painter from Vienna. (The mosaic manufactured by Venetian’s workshop of Adrea Salviati)