Polski
About me
My name is Joanna Łabeńska. I am a licensed city guide in Łódź, a photographer, and the author and publisher of mini guidebooks about the city.
Łódź fascinates me because of its unique and unexpected character. It is a city that cannot be understood only through dates, names and the most famous monuments. Some of its most interesting stories are hidden behind tenement house gates, inside former factories, old cemeteries, museum interiors and in architectural details that are easy to miss during an ordinary walk.
These are exactly the places and stories I want to show to people who would like to discover Łódź more consciously and from a different perspective.
How did the idea for the mini guidebooks begin?
The mini guidebooks were created from the need to offer something between a traditional tourist guidebook and a walk with a local city guide.
I wanted them to be compact, practical and full of interesting facts, while still allowing visitors to explore the city independently and at their own pace.
That is why you will not find only dry descriptions of architecture or long lists of dates. Instead, I take readers into fascinating courtyards, point out unusual details, tell the stories of former residents, factory owners and workers, and explain why the places we see are important to the history of Łódź.
Łódź has many stories to tell
Each mini guidebook focuses on a different part of the city or a specific theme.
You can discover Piotrkowska Street and Księży Młyn, explore the museums of Łódź, learn about Izrael Poznański’s industrial empire and today’s Manufaktura, follow the traces of the Jewish community, or discover the difficult history of Łódź during the partitions and occupation.
There is also a guidebook for families, presenting Łódź as a city that can entertain, educate and surprise both children and adults.
Original texts and photographs
I create my mini guidebooks for people who genuinely want to get to know Łódź.
They combine my experience as a city guide with photography and my personal perspective on the city. I want each publication to be not only a source of information, but also an attractive object that can be taken on a walk, kept as a souvenir or given as a gift to someone interested in Łódź.
Some of the guidebooks are also available in foreign-language editions and as e-books, so they can be used directly on a phone or tablet while sightseeing.
Discover Łódź your own way
You do not have to see the whole city during one visit. Choose a theme that interests you, take a mini guidebook with you and start exploring.
Look around more carefully, step through a gateway, raise your eyes a little higher than usual. Łódź can tell you much more than you might notice at first glance.