Against some circulating opinions about the prevailing greyness of Lodz, it is a city of many a hue. For decades its colours would mellow and fade, damped under the thickening cover of dust, awaiting restoration. In the recent years Lodz has gradually begun to rediscover and expose its forgotten visage. The original colours are returning to the facades of palaces and tenements. Often enough we are amazed to see the 'new' beauty of the old buildings.

Although there is a complete colour palette to be noted in Lodz, there are still certain colours which seem to render the character and the atmosphere of the city in a most successful way; they are the colours we have decided to ascribe - as certain 'leitmotivs' - to the successive parts of our guidebook. Thus, gold symbolises the riches and lavishness of the industrialist residences; red corresponds to the austere power of the textile colosses - the castle-like spinning and weaving mills; green reminds one that Lodz can also boast of a number of attractive parks and gardens; pale rouge takes us back to the times of the 'fin de siecle', when the picturesque middle class halls and town houses and were erected, their facades bursting with the abundance of trimmings.