Every design for Żyrardów

Żyrardów lies on the Pisia Gągolina river, on the flat Równina Łowicko-Błońska some 45 kilometres from Warsaw, bordered by the gminas of Jaktorów, Radziejowice and Wiskitki. In 1845 the Warsaw–Vienna railway arrived with a station of its own, and the town has looked towards the capital ever since.

The Muzeum Lniarstwa im. Filipa de Girarda tells how a village called Ruda Guzowska became one of Poland's great textile towns after a linen mill moved here from Marymont in 1833. The town took its name from Philippe de Girard, the French inventor of flax-spinning machinery who directed the factory. Its owners built schools, bathhouses and a hospital staffed by English doctors, along with churches such as the Kościół pw. Świętego Karola Boromeusza. In 1883 the women of the mill went on strike, one of the largest protests in Polish working-class history, re-enacted in the streets every year since 2004. The Muzeum Mazowsza Zachodniego and the Park im. Karola Augusta Dittricha complete the picture.

If you know these streets, you know the story: a whole town laid out around one mill. Take it with you, from the factory district to the station platform.