Heritage Park of Wooden Architecture was officially opened on the 29th September 2008. It was designed by Anita Luniak and Teresa Mromlińska. The open-air museum is designed to replicate a typical Łódź street of the 1820s. On both sides of the street there are workman’s homes and workshops, a historical church dating from 1848 from Nowosolna and Art Nouveau summer house from Ruda Pabianicka.

The idea to establish an open-air Museum of the Łódź Wooden Architecture was born in the 1950s and 1960s. This idea was given by Krystyna Kondratiukowa, director of the museum at that time. The final realization of the open-air museum had to wait for almost half a century. It was at the beginning of the 21st century, when the possibility was open to apply to the European Union for the financial means, actions were undertaken to actually build it. The site was selected – the Władysław Reymont Park adjoining the Central Museum of Textiles from the back side. Tender for design was announced, and solved in 2002 – two architects from Wrocław were selected: Anita Luniak and Teresa Mromlińska. Construction and building works lasted from September 2006 until May 2008.

The open-air museum includes 8 objects typical of architecture in Łódź towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Objects were selected, so as to represent best the old architecture of the city: church, summer villa, one-storey house for workers, wooden tram-stop and 4 craftsmen houses. The buildings were arranged along two streets covered with “cats’ heads” surface opening to the church cube. Styled elements of small architecture were cared for – lamps, well, signs with street names, etc.

The open-air museum is separated from the complex of the mill buildings (presently museum) with the brick wall with a gate. On the left side there is a house transported from Wólczańska street number 68. In the second half of the 19th century it was owned by Karol Bennich, a factory owner from Łódź (1842-1891). It is planned for the museum exposition purposes – a reconstruction of typical interiors of a craftsman house and weaver workshop.

The building on the other side was formerly situated in Żeromskiego street 68. An interesting element is the entrance door ornamented with iron works with floral motives. Here, hand-made paper workshop will be organized – the material, which is normally used for printing and writing on finds more and more astonishing uses. For several decades artworks made of it have been presented at numerous international exhibitions and competitions and retreats traditionally linked with textile art.

Further we can see a house brought from Mazowiecka street number 61 – an example of a tenement house from the suburbs of the city. On the other side there is a building brought from Kopernika street 42. Its distinctive feature is a set of profiled inter-storey moulds, profiled bands around window and door openings (triangular pediments, window sills) and paneled shutters. The last from the presented former craftsmen houses was transported from Mazowiecka street number 47. All the buildings were erected on the skeleton construction, on rectangular projection, and have saddle roofs. With one exception (a one-storey-house), all are ground-floor houses with functional attic. The inside pattern is symmetrical, double lane, with passage or transverse vestibule. During conservation works in all buildings outcrops were made, which allowed to reconstruct precisely the original colour patterns. In interiors of the houses walls of the first storey were left un-plastered, only whitewashed, uncovering the construction of the building (originally, walls and ceilings were covered with reed and plastered). In these houses craftsmen workshops were made.

Road confluence from Milionowa street and from the museum is closed with a church, transported from Nowosolna (Rynek Nowosolna street number 13). It was erected in 1846-1848 by Evangelical-Augsburg community according to design by Sylwester Szpilowski from 1811 (he was son of Hilary, also architect). During construction the design was changed and the wooden front wall was replaced by a brick plastered one, the idea of a small porch was also given up. After the II World War it was given to the catholic Church and under the name of Saint Andrew Bobola (patron of the church is represented on the façade) served until not long ago to the local community. It is a building on the rectangular view size 20,48 m x 11.60 m, two-storeyed (nave with gallery), covered with tripartite roof. Three walls were erected in wooden construction, the fourth, front one is bricked crowned with ave-bell. When the church was frequented by the local catholic community several important changes were introduced in its interior – the gallery was made shorter and a new presbytery wall was built (behind it, from the east a one-storey sacristy was made). On the choir wall the altar was founded with the pulpit on its left and in the 1970s, above the altar, a monumental polychromatic painting on big plates by painters from Łódź, Józef Wasiołek and Mieczysław Saar, was installed.

After trans-location of the church to the open-air museum, following outcrops, the original character and colours of the interior were brought (due to construction reasons the gallery was not changed and the choir wall was not disassembled). From the oldest, the evangelical interior decoration, a polychromatic painting was left (dating back to the first half of the 19th century) and representing the Eye of Providence in the glory of rays (presently, on the first storey of the sacristy) and an organ prospect.

In the street from Milionowa street, among the trees, a summer villa was situated, transported from Ruda Pabianicka, from Scaleniowa street number 18. It is the most interesting object in the open-air museum from the point of view of architecture and carpentry and the last preserved one in the city (a twin building was disassembled in the spring 2004). In 1939 the owner of the building was Szaja Światłowski. A picturesque villa on irregular plan is provided with a cellar, a one-storey construction with non-functional attic. Angular towers, cubes of verandas as well as the rest of the cubic corpse are made of glass. The villa retained the affluent architectonic detail. Profiled boarder and under-window moulds divide the elevation decorated with panels with crossed details. Window and carpentry with small divisions of window bars is ornamented with colour glass-work. In the roof part sculpted elements of carpentry are exposed – supports of construction of helmets, towers, attic windows and visible details of rafter framing of saddle roof.

On the other side there is a small building (dating from 1901-1913) of the former tram stop from the Old Marketplace in Zgierz; guard cabin of those who watch the open-air museum will be situated. In the future we intend to transport the bell-tower, which was part of the church complex in Nowosolna.