Not far from Warsaw, halfway to Lodz, there is a unique, as yet undiscovered, place. This, built entirely of red brick, place has witnessed andA participant in many historical events that took place in our country, for example: the Industrial Revolution, or the first strike of workers on Polish soil in 1883, the so-called Strike of the Spinners is the place is Zyrardow. Zyrardow is an extremely beautiful and unique city. This uniqueness is due to its history and what remains of it? The colorful history of the town dates back to 1829, when the Karol Scholtz and Company was founded by the Łubieński family (Henryk - president of the Polish Bank, Jan, Tomasz), Józef Lubowidzki - vice-president of the Polish Bank, and Korol Scholtz - commercial advisor to the Polish Bank. Its goal was to launch the first linen factory in the Russian Empire. In the initial plans, the factory was to be built in Warsaw's Marymont, but these plans were thwarted by the November Uprising, and it was finally decided to build it from scratch on the estate belonging to the co-founders of this company ? the Lyubienski brothers. The town of Zyrardow is named after Philippe de Girard, the first technical director of the Zyrardow linen factory. He was French by origin and an engineer by education, but above all he was a designer and inventor of, among other things, a water turbine and a machine for mechanical flax spinning ? an invention that revolutionized the process of flax processing and was applied in Zyrardow plants. From the moment the first brick building of the factory was built in 1833 (the so-called Old Spinning Mill, designed by Jan Jakub Gay) , Zyrardow slowly conquered new markets and thus grew into a tycoon in the field of processing and production of linen materials. The breakthrough year was 1857 when the Zyrardow factory passed into the hands of two Austrian investors ? Karl August Dittrich and Karl Hielle. It was their, and Karol Dittrich jr.'s, reforms that contributed to the city's greatest boom in its history. They, also gave the final shape to the Fabryczna Settlement. The Fabryczna Settlement is an urban layout that includes residential buildings (workers' housing estate, Familijniak, directors' houses, Villa Dittrich), public buildings (including Kantor, Resursa) and buildings of the factories themselves (the so-called mâche house, Bielnik factory complex, Old and New Spinning Mill). The city was built on the basis of the idea of a ?Garden City?, where attention is drawn to the regular grid of streets, along which grow lush and splendid chestnut, lime and oak trees, and the estates of workers' houses were built in so-called quarters. Life in such a factory town, seemingly dull and monotonous, was in fact very varied. The reason for this was the multinationality of the city's citizens. They lived and worked here: Poles who worked as laborers, sometimes as writers and accountants, Austrians and Germans who were executives, Scots, Czechs, Slovaks working, also as factory workers, Jews bludgeoning mainly in crafts and trade. Englishmen were excellent doctors and medics, and Russians and Cossacks guarding order in the city. This multiculturalism could be seen at first glance. This was evidenced, among other things, by the formation of churches of different denominations (there were two Roman Catholic parish churches, a Lutheran church, a Baptist church, a Jewish synagogue), two cemeteries (one, a common Catholic and Protestant one, and a separate Jewish cemetery) and the formation of neighborhoods that were inhabited, usually, by one nation. Despite these differences and the richness of culture and nationality, there were no acts of intolerance against any nation in the city. It was a remarkably tolerant city. Factory workers and other residents of the city, in addition to work, were able to enjoy many interesting and unattainable, for those times, leisure activities. In order to diversify leisure activities, two community centers were built where residents could interact with the culture ? watch a play or listen to music. These buildings were the so-called Ludowiec, a house of culture intended for workers, and the Resursa and Bowling Alley, where officers experienced their pleasures. Here one could watch a play, play cards, billiards or bowling (one had to sign up for the Kegel Kamm bowling club). To help with all this, a factory orchestra and two singing choirs were founded, which still exist today. In later years, another building was added for cultural purposes, namely a cinema, which was open to all workers. In addition to the cultural sphere, which distinguished Zyrardow from other factory towns, there was also a social sphere, which amazed visitors from all over Europe with its grandeur. The owners of the time cared very much about their workers and tried to provide them with the best possible living conditions. The first step towards improving social conditions was the construction of a workers' housing estate with its consequent expansion. Any deserving worker could get a place in such a red-brick house standing on any of the city's streets, and this was no small feat and a great honor at the same time. Those in charge of the factory placed great emphasis on education. To this end, five schools were built: the so-called old school, the first in the city, two factory schools (one for the children of executives and the other for the children of workers), a female school and a Jewish school. The social sphere was supplemented by the Ochronka z Babińcem, a kindergarten for workers' children, with a capacity for 1,200 children. This was a pioneering building on a European scale, as it was the first of its kind in modern Europe. To make matters worse, workers in the Zyrardow plants were provided with free medical care provided by the English in a newly built factory hospital, modeled on the most modern hospitals in Dresden, with central heating and lighting. A Bathhouse and Laundry were built, where residents took baths after a hard day's work. The workers owed all these amenities to three things: their hard work, the factory owners, and flax, which was as valuable to Zyrardow as gold was to medieval Europe or as jade was to the Mayans or Chinese. The Zyrardow factory was the largest linen factory in all of Europe. It produced all sorts of napkins, tablecloths, cloths and the fabric itself, which was later used to make clothing. Virtually all production went for export to Czarist Russia. The factory had its stores all over the empire, among others in Warsaw on Krakowskie Przedmieście, Kalisz, Czestochowa, Poznan and St. Petersburg. Its products were appreciated at many exhibitions, where they won first prizes, for example: in Paris, Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest and Moscow. As the market developed, it was decided to process cotton in addition to flax. This cotton was used to produce socks, tights, underpants and other underwear. The Zyrardow factory was joined by the Hosiery Plant, a new branch of the factory, which became the largest hosiery plant in Europe, and the same was true of the spinning, weaving and bleaching plants, which were the largest facilities in their category in all of Europe. Zyrardow developed exuberantly until the outbreak of World War I. The material damage the city suffered during the war clashes was considerable, but even greater was the loss of markets. The then owners, lacking sufficient funds to rebuild the factory and its position in Europe, turned to the Polish government for financial assistance. The latter refused, with the result that those in charge of the Zyrardow plant had to leave the city. Management of the factory was entrusted to the Bussac Company, a French company (which also produced linen materials), which sought to bankrupt the Zyrardow plants, as it was the largest linen plant in Europe and also a competitor to the French. When the Zyrardow plant was going bankrupt, the Polish government decided to take the factory away from the Company, and after many lawsuits the Zyrardow plant came under the administration of the Polish government. However, it did not regain its pre-World War I splendor, when it employed about 9,000 workers, and after World War II it employed less than 4,000-5,000. The historic Zyrardow Factory Settlement has survived to this day in almost unchanged condition and is the only fully preserved 19th-century urban layout in Europe. The uniqueness of this place is confirmed by numerous awards and distinctions such as: Polish Tourist Organization Certificate for the Best Tourist Product or the title of the Best European Tourist Destination - EDEN. The most important distinction is the status of Monument of History, granted in 2012, which is the highest form of monument protection in Poland and includes the Historic Zyrardow Settlement among the 50 most important monuments in our country. It is worth visiting this town for several reasons: the town is experiencing a true renaissance, it is a living open-air museum, i.e., most of the buildings have retained their former, original functions (schools remain schools, a kindergarten is a kindergarten, the magistrate's office houses the Town Hall, former community centers function?), here we can feel the spirit of post-industrialism, which is slowly mixing with modernity (it's because of those lofts). Zyrardow, due to the fact that the factory settlement survived practically in its entirety, has wonderfully preserved monuments. There is a huge number of them here, but the most noteworthy are undoubtedly the factory Resursa with the Bowling Alley (newly revitalized) with beautiful frescoes and polychromes by Baginski, the Tyrolean Palace and Villa Dittrich, where we can admire an authentic panorama of the city from the 19th century measuring 367cm by 140cm and a collection of paintings by Jozef Rapacki, an outstanding representative of realism, a friend of Jozef Chelmonski. The villa is surrounded by a beautiful English-style landscaped park (in the 19th century admission here was only by permission of the factory owners themselves) by Karol Szparman. In the area of the factory's bleachery there are stores, whose decor is reminiscent of the interior design of 19th century stores. The factory headquarters tempts with renovated branches of the former factory the spinning mills, which we can visit, today have become lofts, and the weaving mills have been turned into shopping malls. Opposite the factory headquarters, a vast plaza named after John Paul II marks the center of the city. It is surrounded by monuments that we can enter. Located here are min. Magistrate, a modernist, green-plastered building, Ludowiec with its characteristic dome, factory schools, Ochronka with a granary with a beautiful column room, where there is a bust of Karol August Dittrich himself, the neo-Gothic Church of Our Lady of Consolation, where the architect was Jozef Pius Dziekoński (the father of Polish neo-Gothic), stained-glass windows from Jozef Mehoffer's workshop depict the most beautiful Polish flowers and the belfries are about 70 meters high. In addition to these monuments there are many other noteworthy objects, but instead of describing them, one should see them, as they are testimony to the fact that Zyrardow and this factory was one of the first enclaves of capitalism in Europe. Marcin Józefecki
14.06.2012
