Świny, Lower Silesian Voivodeship

Świny [ˈɕfinɨ] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Bolków, within Jawor County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland.

Indeed, the forebears of the local Lords of Świny (Schweinichen) may have established themselves in the area when Silesia came under the rule of the Piast duke Mieszko I of Poland.

Świny Castle was first documented in 1108 by the medieval chronicler Cosmas of Prague, author of the Chronica Boemorum, who mentioned one Voivode Mutina of the Vršovci dynasty meeting his uncle Nemoy at Castrum Suini in Poloniae to plot against Duke Svatopluk of Bohemia.

From the 13th century on, Świny apparently was the administrative seat of a Polish castellany on the trade route from the Silesian capital Wrocław across the Bohemian border at Kamienna Góra to Trutnov and Prague.

In the 16th century the members of the Schweinichen noble family hosted a circle of mystics, among them Jakob Böhme, Abraham von Franckenberg and Angelus Silesius.

Castle ruins
Świny Castle, 1655 depiction