The Gala of Discover Europe 2026 took place on the 30th of May in a beautiful location called Alfred Biedermann’s Palace, whose design immediately leaves an impression once one walks in. The Palace is built in a Neo-Renaissance style with some 17th century classicist elegance added to it. It was a perfect location for the Gala of our photography competition!
Over 60 participants came from all over Poland and Europe to participate in our Final Gala. We started the Award Ceremony with a speech from the main coordinator of the project – Weronika, followed by speeches from the partners of our contest. Then, the contest’s statistics were presented. Our contest brought together 348 amazing photographers from all over Europe, with 1,718 photos submitted in 4 contest categories: Discover Architecture, Discover Nature, Discover People and Discover Flavours. Our jury then chose 3 main prizes and 7 honorable mentions in 3 categories voted by the jury, while the public chose the 3 winning photos in the Discover Flavours, public-voted category. The jury consisted of Jakub Machalica, a previous winner of last year’s edition of Discover Europe, and Sławomir Grzanek, President of the Łódzkie Towarzystwo Fotograficzne.
The awards were sponsored by our Partners: PKP Intercity, Pepe Housing and Łódź dla Nauki grant funded by Młodzi w Łodzi and Centrum Opus. The first prize included an Interrail Global Pass Youth ticket (sponsored by PKP Intercity), the second prize consisted of a €200 voucher for Ryanair (sponsored by Pepe Housing) and the third prize included a Polaroid camera (funded by Łódź dla Nauki grant by Młodzi w Łodzi and Centrum Opus).
After the award ceremony, it was time to visit the prepared photo gallery displaying all the winning photographs. It was also a moment for the discussions with the winners and honorable mentions to get a wider perspective of the photos and the photographers. The Organising Committee also prepared a coffee break with hot drinks, refreshments and sweet snacks, as what is a vernissage without a nice refresher for the mind like a cup of warm tea or coffee. During this time we also went outside of the building to take a group photo with the gorgeous facade of the palace in the background, displaying the true spirit of the Discover Europe photo contest.
We would like to warmly congratulate all the winners of the competition, your creativity was visible throughout the whole edition! We would also like to cordially thank once again our Partners, our Jury and the photographers who captured our Final Gala – Stanisław and Mateusz, whose photos you can see in this article. Thank you to all the photography enthusiasts out there, you made this edition so wonderful.
The Discover Europe competition will be back next year, stay tuned!
