For many years people mainly perceived Lodz as the city of factories and greyness of every-day life. Only a few noticed its architectonic, landscape, natural and cultural advantages. Nowadays this situation has changed.

Beautifully restored buildings and residences of the industrialists – the monuments of the Secession and Eclectic architecture, exceptional museums, and also unique in the world-scale complexes representing the 19th cent. industrial architecture, attract tourists to Lodz. Piotrkowska, the top elegant street of the city, which houses Lodz\'s biggest institutions, banks, shops, numerous restaurants, pubs, discotheques, second-hand bookshops, art galleries, cinemas and other cultural institutions, is another great attraction.

Lodz is an important cultural, scientific, educational and medical centre, which is highly valued for both its rich heritage of traditions and the latest achievements. Artur Rubinstein and Julian Tuwim came from Lodz. Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polanski and Krzysztof Kieslowsk studied in the Lodz Film Academy. Its geographical location in the centre of Poland is particularly important for commercial contacts and processes of integration with the EU. The European Institute in Lodz is the only site in Poland that houses the National Training Centre of the European Social Fund. The need for participating in the integration processes was a stimulus for the city authorities to start work on establishing the body representing Lodzkie Region in Brussels. The material, intellectual, scientific, cultural and arts base, together with the dynamic development of these disciplines and initiatives undertaken by the local authorities, nowadays provide Lodz with the position of the metropolitan centre, which is recognised both nation and world-wide.