Retkinia

[18] According to official statistics from 1827, the village of Retkinia (then located in Kalisz Voivodeship, Sieradz obwód, Szadek county) had 33 houses and a population of 300.

Information about folk culture in Retkinia comes from a historical survey written by the local priest Paweł Załuska and his brother Leonard.

[21] Among local customs Załuska and Załuska mention throwing peas into the air at Christmas Eve dinner as a form of apotropaic magic directed against witchcraft, wrapping straw from the Christmas table around orchard trees to secure a good harvest, and dashing home from the church in carts to make the horses sweat, which was supposed to save them from sweating during labour in the fields.

[22] Local celebrations of Dyngus were particularly unrestrained, with incidents of young girls being thrown into troughs and poured with water sometimes leading to death of exposure.

[23] The village had its own cunning man named Jan Chrzciciel Szer, a settler from Rheinland, who practised folk-medicine with the help of herbal remedies as well as charms and prayers.

[24] A Catholic parish was established in Retkinia in 1910, and after three years of construction work (on 17 August 1913), the new church, built in the Neogothic style, was consecrated.

[32] The decision of the occupant regime to make Retkinia part of Łódź was reversed after the end of World War II, but not for long, and in 1946 the Polish authorities reincorporated the village into the city.

The significance of the connection for the local community was commemorated by a monument erected in 2006, featuring tram wheels on a surviving section of the historical rails.

[37] According to initial plans, it was to accommodate as many as 120,000 people, but the area south of the railway tracks was eventually designated for single-family houses that were to form a separate estate,[38] bringing the total envisaged number of residents in Retkinia down to c.

[39][40] The estate was originally designed with an adequate number of green spaces, shops and other services, but public pressure and the demand for living quarters led to streamlining the construction effort to focus on blocks of flats only,[41] resulting in a three-shift school system due to a shortage of school buildings coupled with a period of baby boom,[42] and forcing many local residents to do their shopping in the city centre.

[44] The quality of the blocks of flats also left much to be desired, with numerous complaints about flooded cellars and faulty heaters (which had to be replaced in more than 400 buildings) prompting the local authorities to undertake a massive program of repairs.

[45] Because of this situation the word ‘Retkinia’ accreted negative associations and was sometimes used in the 1980s as a generic term for an unwelcoming and ugly block housing estate.

Following the fall of communism in 1989, a number of new shopping centres, cafes and restaurants opened in Retkinia, and the district is now considered to be one of the most attractive places of residence in Łódź.

[52] Retkinia bus and tram terminus, located at the western end of the housing estate, serves as a major public transport hub for the south-western part of the city of Łódź.

"[53] There are also direct bus connections to the Nowy Józefów industrial area, Port Łódź mall, as well as the nearby town of Konstantynów Łódzki.