The Źródliska Park is a component part of an extensive historic complex of Księży Młyn, which constitutes a uniform, stylish spatial arrangement of 19th-century factory and residential buildings along with surrounding greenery. Źródliska I has its own order and usage programme. It covered, among other things, a Palm House with a collection of exotic plants, originating from collections of the manufacturers and wealthy citizens of Łódź, as well as a School Botanical Garden. The main value of the Źródliska park are, among other things, old oaks, originating from a forest stand, while in the case of Źródliska II - decorative trees of rare species and varieties, planted approx. 1865-1876 where the first garden by a manufacturer residence in Łódź was established. This valuable collection of trees is until today one of the most extensive in Łódź. In 1990, the park was recognised as a collective natural monument.

History

The park was created in the 1840s as a result of a regulation implemented in Łódź, during which forests of the Łaznów forest administration were included into the area of the city. Part of the forest area was earmarked for a public park - A Stroll Garden. The park called, due to the terrain features, Źródlisko (a large water spring), was also referred to as English Garden (its eastern part was called Kwela, from the German word Quelle which means a water spring). The park was arranged in line with a design of 1843 by an engineer of the Łęczycki District, named Brochocki, in a an English, landscape style (forest-like, which resulted from the existing tree stand and muddy ground). The traffic layout of the garden was constituted by two paths running along the diagonals with a square at their intersection. In mid-19th century, the park was divided. Its western part was handed over, under a perpetual usufruct, to manufacturer Karl Wilhelm Scheibler, who placed his production plants in the vicinity (on the east). From that time, the history of the both parts of the park has run along two different paths, as a result of which two different spatial complexes were created. The eastern part of the park was generally accessible and used by all citizens of Łódź, while the western part was adapted to serve as a palace park. The eastern part of the park - Źródliska I - is the oldest municipal park and it has been a communal property ever since. In the 4th quarter of the 19th century, the park fittings included, among other things, wooden fencing, restaurant, gazebo for an orchestra, and a residential building. The greenery included deciduous and coniferous trees of a former forest, and lawns divided by solid paths. In connection with a gardening exhibition organised in 1892, cleaning works were carried out in the park, and paths were hardened with gravel in correspondence to the design of the exhibition terrain, the lawns were refreshed by removing dead trees and overly dense shrubs, and by creating new flower beds. After the World War I, works were carried out in the park consisting in drainage of its surface and arranging a well, building a water supply system and a fencing of mesh in metal frames. In 1923-1925, the park was thoroughly converted according to a design by Edward Ciszkiewicz. The spatial layout of the complex created then has been retained, with small modifications, until today. In the part of the park handed over to Karl Wilhelm Scheibler (currently Źródliska II), in its north-eastern section, a mechanical spinning mill, single-storey residential house, kitchen, carriage house, utility building, and at a later time - weaving plant, boiler room, and a finishing plant were built.. At the first stage of land development in the park, a crop garden was arranged, which grew, over time, to one fourth of the park area. In the years 1865-1867, the residential building was converted according to a design by Johann Karl Mertshing into a two-storey neo-Renaissance villa with a four-storey observation tower. The next conversion, carried out in the years 1884-1887 according to a design by Edward Lilpop, resulted in the neo-Renaissance palace in the existing shape, which - since 1986 - has been the seat of the Museum of Cinematography. The former palace garden, created in the second half of the 19th century, was a decorative, crop, and stroll garden, combining elements of a regular style with a more free one, including the existing natural forest. Fountains, a gazebo, a pavilion with creepers, and a cave with an observation terrace were built. By the entrance to the park from the current Targowa Street, there was a gardener house, and beside it, greenhouses were built and an orchard was planted. On the eastern border of the factory area, the park was surrounded by a row of densely planted trees. Until the outbreak of the World War II, the park - still owned by the Scheibler family - was not significantly modified, but it was losing its glory over time. After the war, the park became municipal property and was thoroughly converted. The orchard was liquidated, the palace park section was separated and fenced, and the closest surroundings of the palace was deprived of flower and crop beds. The water system was renovated and cleaned, the traffic system underwent a full-scale transformation - entrances from Fabryczna Street and from Targowa Street were opened, the main path of the park was delimited, running from the Water Square, along an arch, through the centre of the park, to its south-eastern corner. The park was named Źródliska II and in 1947 it was opened for the citizens of Łódź. In the next years, as a result of activities connected with the construction of an underground hot-water supply system, some of the sparse poplars growing in a row along the border of the park were removed. In years 1975-1990, the park became more and more neglected and abandoned. The trees fell over because of repeating floodings or due to other reasons, the Chinese gazebo was destroyed, the fountain was decommissioned, the area of its reservoir and the surrounding flower beds was levelled, and the cave fell into ruin. In the years 1994-1999, the whole park (Źródliska I and Źródliska II) was subjected to revalorisation works. As part of the works, park fencing was made (1993-1994), in Źródliska I, three entrances were preserved, in Źródliska II - two entrances, a number of former paths were liquidated, and the surface of remaining ones was upgraded (1994-1996), lighting was installed (1996-1998), the water system collecting surface water was cleaned up and modernised, the Chinese gazebo was reconstructed, old trees underwent treatment, some volunteer plants were removed, and many species and varieties of plants were planted.

Description

The Źródliska Park is comprised of two parts - Źródliska I park (area of 10.64 ha) on the east, and Źródliska II park (originally 6.65 ha, currently 6.38 ha within the fenced area), constituting a former palace park. To the north from Źródliska II and the former factory of Karl Wilhelm Scheibler there is so-called Zieleniec (area of 2.16 ha) by the Water Market (currently Zwycięstwa Square), which is an external, functional an design combination of Źródlisko I and Źródlisko II. The modern form and present layout of the Źródliska park were defined by revalorisation works in 1994-1999. Źródliska I retained its Modernist garden style, combining in harmony a free landscape layout with modest regulated systems intertwined. Near the western entrance (from Zwycięstwa Square), the central square of the park is located. In the eastern end of the square, there is a concert stage in the form of a cast iron gazebo. In the orthographic projection of the park, a wide belt path has been incorporated to which other paths in the park are connected. The trees, growing usually in groups at the verges of the park, surround the park’s internal space which is, therefore, well isolated from the road traffic. Among the trees, there are very old specimens - remains of a former forest. Decorative trees, planted in the Inter-war Period, occur near buildings and regular systems. In the north-eastern part of the park, there are Palm House and School Botanical Garden. In the south-eastern part, there is a pond fed with water through a cascade of two small ponds. In Źródliska II park, arch-shaped paths are connected with the central path running along an approximate arch and enabling traffic between the entrances to the park. A relic of the former traffic system are two perpendicular paths in the northern part of the park. Some spots are densely wooded here, and extensive lawns can be find in this place, with spectacular solitary trees. In the vicinity of the main path, there is a gazebo, an artificial structure resembling a cave, and close to the cave - a pond with an undulating shoreline. In the centre, close to the pond, there is an artificial hill. The main decorative element of the park are monument trees - oaks more than two hundred years old and other trees - nearly one and a half hundred years old - of rare species and varieties. Both parts of the park are still separated by post-industrial area - buildings of the former plant of Karl Wilhelm Scheibler.

The historic monument is accessible.

compiled by Jolanta Welc-Jędrzejewska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Łódź, 19-05-2014.

Bibliography

• Bartczak M., Scheiblerowie, Łódź 1999.
• Kobojek G., Księży Młyn. Królestwo Scheiblerów, Łódź 1998.
• Olaczek A., Wróblewska B., Dokumentacja ewolucji układu funkcjonalno-przestrzennego parku Źródliska w Łodzi, Łódź 1984, Archiwum Biura Programowania i Projektowania Rozwoju Łodzi.
• Olaczek R. (red.), Ogrody Księżego Młyna, Łódź 2008.
• Olaczek R. (red.), Park Źródliska I, Łódź 2006.