Manufaktura

Łódź


This huge – and hugely impressive – shopping mall deserves to be listed as a tourist attraction in its own right. It's within a massive complex of red-brick buildings that was once a 19th-century textile mill belonging to Izrael Poznański, Łódź's wealthiest citizen. In addition to nearly every chain store familiar to EU residents, there are cafes, restaurants, a multiplex cinema, an Imax theatre, and several worthwhile museums. It gets thronged with weekend mall rats.

Be sure to seek out the beautiful brick Factory Gate on the south side. It dates to 1880.