A wave of revitalizations has swept across Poland in the last decade. Some of them were more successful, others less so. Usually we pay attention to their effects freshly after the completion of the construction process - however, this is not the optimal way to evaluate changes whose effects depend not only on the project, but also on the growth of greenery and further management of the space. As an example, we take a small town in the Łódź region, where the revitalization of one of the city's squares was completed last October. How does the Old Market in Pabianice look today?
The Pabianice square acquired its previous form in the late 1960s. It was shaped in a manner typical of the time - as an authoritarian space for the representation of power, used primarily for convening gatherings. The centerpiece of the Old Market was a square tightly covered with slabs and the now defunct Monument to the Fighters for Social and National Liberation, designed by Antoni Bilas. It was its removal, which was ordered by the IPN under the Decommunization Law, that provided the impetus for the metamorphosis in the Pabianice pan. The renovation campaign was completed in the fall of 2024. How does the new Old Market in Pabianice look after a year?
How does the Old Market in Pabianice look one year after the revitalization?
Photo: Maria Cipinska
new-Stare Market in Pabianice
The revitalized Old Market in Pabianice has seen a standard set of small architecture - dozens of benches, chess tables, as well as booths to be rented out when organizing various events. New plantings have also been taken care of - a total of 1,800 square meters have been greened, planting 111 trees and a large number of low plants - but there was no room for lawns, although triangular pots have been set up on the square's plate. A sundial appeared in one corner, while five wooden booths were set up on the north side to serve as stands during various events. There is also a fountain splashing water several meters high in the western part of the market.
What does the Old Market in Pabianice look like one year after the revitalization was completed?
Photo: Maria Cipinska
The largest area is occupied by the centrally located market square, which was intended to serve as a venue for various events. After the revitalization, different surfaces appeared on the square - there are both several types of slabs and granite cobblestones. The latter, which covers a large part of the square's slab, was not created specifically with this place in mind. It was previously located on Zamkowa Street, whose protracted and not very successful renovation was completed in 2023.
What does the Old Market in Pabianice look like one year after the revitalization was completed?
Photo: Maria Cipinska
green sequence
The western part of Pabianice's market looks definitely the best. It is here that the largest concentration of greenery and permeable surfaces has been created. The sequence begins on the western side with a row of new trees, with a few parking spaces squeezed between them. Further on there is an alley, running on a north-south axis, parallel to the border of the market. Here, too, new trees have appeared. Between them, benches and the aforementioned chess tables were designed in small niches. A public restroom was also created in the southern part of the alley - a small, cuboidal pavilion clad with a trellis, along which plants can climb in the future. The last element of the "green sequence" is a pergola, under which several benches have been placed.
What does the Old Market in Pabianice look like one year after the revitalization is completed?
Photo: Maria Cipinska
built-unused
It seems to be the most important element of the area's development, while at the same time, in its current state, it is also its biggest failure. As can be seen in the visualizations presented by the city three years ago, the trellis - as a trellis is - was covered with climbing plants, which were supposed to provide shade. Unfortunately, the places where the trellis was attached to the ground have been completely concreted over. Nothing grows from the nearby flowerbeds either. In a word - it is bald. And after a year or two it could have been quite green. For example - the annual growth of ivy is about one meter, and for some species of grapevine it can be up to four meters. Almost a year after assembling the landscaping elements, the pergolas are still openwork structures that provide little shade - so it can be considered a lost year in terms of shading the market.
What does the Old Market in Pabianice look like one year after the revitalization is completed?
Photo: Maria Cipinska
Problems with the maintenance of the space also appear in other places - after a breakdown, the aforementioned toilet did not work for a long time, and the same happened with the fountain. The booths in the southern part of the market are completely unused, while an ice cream trailer stands right next to them. The booths find their users only during outdoor events, of which there have not been many over the past year. The conclusion is simple - sometimes it is not only a poor or mediocre design that is at the root of the poor quality of space, but also the way in which this space is maintained and used. The regularity, which is obvious in the case of historic spaces, turns out to be equally relevant in relation to newly built places. So: since you have already built - use and care.
What does the Old Market in Pabianice look like one year after the revitalization is completed?
Photo: Maria Cipinska
pabianice old market
A wave of market revitalizations has swept through Poland in recent years - some are model, others completely unsuccessful. Many of them, however, fill the mark of "generic" places, or - as the anthropologists of space would have it - non-places, which do not provide a context for everyday events, do not create points of reference. Previously, such a role in the Pabianice market square could be played by a communist monument. Although unwanted, it evoked emotions that allowed residents to respond to this space, to take away its status of indifference. After the revitalization, has the Old Market managed to create an element that allows us to call it a "place" with a clear conscience?
What does the Old Market in Pabianice look like one year after the revitalization was completed?
Photo: Maria Cipinska
In the village near Lodz, a local legendwas put to use - by the fountain there was a sculpture depicting Princess Pabianka, the legendary owner of Pabianice. According to the story, she was supposed to live in Pabianice's "castle" (in fact, the Palace of the Cracow Chapter) and to be overflowing with riches. The only thing she lacked was beauty - ashamed of her own appearance, she was said to have ordered the construction of a tunnel between her residence and the nearby St. Matthew's Church, so she could avoid the judging eyes of Pabianians.
What does Pabianice's Old Market look like one year after the revitalization was completed?
photo: Maria Cipinska
Although there is not a word about Pabianice in historical sources, the legend is extremely vivid among the city's residents, especially since a wall was discovered during earthworks in the vicinity of the market, at the intersection of Zamkowa and Gdańska Streets, which perfectly fit the story of the unfortunate princess. The sculpture was designed by Ewa Maliszewska - a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, co-author of the puppets in the Oscar-winning Peter and the Wolf and a Pabianite.
Zamkowa Street in Pabianice around 1910.
© public domain, source: fotopolska.eu
it's not the market that's problematic
Is the Old Market in Pabianice an example of the new concourse, as internet commentators thundered less than a year ago? Although it is by no means a groundbreaking development, it can hardly be called a complete failure. The Old Market, however, combines several functions, although most of them are still a certain potential, not a reality. If one already has reservations about the physical face of Pabianice's transformation, the reconstruction of nearby Zamkowa Street is far worse. In its case, the almost complete concreting of the pavement on some sections of the pedestrian thoroughfares seems to have no justification. Preservation issues probably played a role here - after all, we are talking about a historic establishment, a string of palaces and 19th-century factory buildings. However, as source materials show, Zamkowa Street was really green in the last century.
In the 1940s, rows of trees lined Zamkowa Street; some of them overshadowed the edifices of the Krusche and Ender offices and factory buildings, the historic building of the Zlota Kotwica Hotel, and even the palace of the Krakow Chapter. For this reason, the residents of Pabianice were sometimes said to call Castle Street "Avenues." Today, although it is better in terms of transportation infrastructure (a two-lane roadway, a new tramway and a bicycle path have appeared), there are far fewer trees, and the shade has almost completely disappeared.So much for the fact that Pabianice's re-use was not limited to the basalt paving of the Old Market, as some of the trees growing along Zamkowa Street were earmarked for replanting in another part of the city. Against this contrast, the market, with its preserved, albeit modest balance of greenery and several ideas of local identity, comes off rather favorably. But is its potential fully realized?
