Piotrkowska Street

Piotrkowska runs about four kilometres in a straight line through the middle of Lodz and is usually called the longest commercial street in Europe, a claim that depends on the definition but is not absurd. It was laid out on the old road to Piotrkow and built up in the second half of the nineteenth century when Lodz went from a village to a textile city of half a million in fifty years, so the facades along it are the architecture of that boom - eclectic, Secession, tenements with courtyards behind, and the houses of the mill owners. The Avenue of Stars is set into the pavement with names of Polish film people, since Lodz has the national film school. Bronze figures stand along the street: Tuwim's bench, Rubinstein at a piano, Reymont with a suitcase. The northern end is the tidied and busy part with bars and restaurants; the southern end is still patchy and being restored.

What you actually see

• Four kilometres straight - the longest commercial street in Europe, by most counts.
• Textile-boom facades - eclectic and Secession fronts with courtyards behind.
• The Avenue of Stars - names of Polish film figures set in the pavement.
• Bronze figures - Tuwim, Rubinstein and Reymont along the pavement.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

The southern kilometres are still run-down and much less rewarding than the north. Walking the full length is a long way - rickshaws work the street for a reason. Many courtyards are private.

Nearby

Manufaktura is west; Ksiezy Mlyn is south-east.