Alfred Biedermann’s Palace and Park Complex in Lodz at Franciszkańska 1/5, built by a family of industrialists from Lodz in 1912, will be open to the public for the first time during this year’s Night of Museums. Visitors will be able to see the park and the interiors of the palace, including the richly decorated ballroom (now the ‘fireplace Room’) and the dining room (now the cradle room).
In addition, outside the palace you will be able to see the guardhouse and carriage house (currently the university’s Wozownia 1/5 Gallery). The priceless collection of Andrzej Różycki, an artist, a photographer, a filmmaker, an art theorist and a collector, which is located inside the palace, will also be available.
Sightseeing
You can visit the palace from: 5:00 p.m. till midnight, with or without a guide:
- every full hour there will be a guided tour, duration – about 30 minutes, in Polish, entries at 5:00 p.m.; 6:00 p.m.; 7:00 p.m.; 9 p.m.; 10 p.m.; 11:00 p.m. (break between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.). The guided tour is available after prior registration: e-mail – palac@uni.lodz.pl on 12 - 16 May of the current year. (limited places – one group can include max. 30 people) or depending on the availability of places at the selected time. During the guided tour, you will be able to hear more than one interesting story about the Biedermann’s family and visit the University of Lodz Museum located in the palace.
- there will be time for individual visitors in breaks between the guided group entries – visiting the palace using mobile applications (with QR codes). Polish and English language versions are available. Entry without a guide does not require registration.
Note! Due to the historic flooring, it is not possible to visit the palace with baby strollers. You can take interior photos free of charge, only for private purposes. Publishing photos and recordings presenting the interior of the palace requires the consent of the University of Lodz.
History in Motion: An Audio Story of the Biedermann’s Palace
Visiting the Biedermann’s Palace during the Night of Museums this year will be enriched with the option of an audio guide. It has been created by three third-year students: Marlena Kostrzewa, Zuzanna Kozicka, Magdalena Krzeszewska as part of the BA project under the Theatre Production and Organisation of Performances study programme at the University of Lodz. The project was developed as part of Dr Karol Jóźwiak's seminar and with the support of Katarzyna Urbaniak.
QU codes will be available in individual rooms. Thanks to them everyone will be able to listen to short stories of the Biedermann family and information about individual rooms. The audio guide has been prepared in two language versions, Polish and English.
"History in motion: Audio-story of the Biedermann's Palace" is a collection of 13 recordings enriched with photographs, telling the story of the Alfred Biedermann's palace and park complex. They take into account the history of the Biedermann family, the former owners of the building. There are also videos describing the contents of the rooms belonging to the University of Lodz Museum. Thanks to the audio guide, you can visit the Biedermann’s Palace at any time of the day or night – also virtually.
The exhibition "Photosophical Archive of Andrzej Różycki" (in Polish) at the Biedermann’s Palace will be available during the Night of Museums between 5:00 p.m. and midnight. It presents an outline of the resources of Andrzej Różycki's Photosophical Archive, which consists of his artistic works and collection, which have been on deposit at the University of Lodz since 2022.
In his artistic work, since the 1960s, Różycki has co-created key trends in Polish neo-avant-garde art related to photography, medialism and conceptualism. At the same time, he spent over five decades expanding his unique collection of naive art, vernacular, rural and religious culture. The exhibition will highlight threads connecting these two, seemingly distant, areas of Różycki's activity, and the concept of photosophy, combining philosophy, photography, the idea of light and the mechanics of image creation, will be explained.
Admission is free.
Feel free to come!
Edit: Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz