The municipal area is situated northeast of Halberstadt, on the Bundesstraße 245 highway to Hamersleben.

The area belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Halberstadt, which after the Protestant Reformation was finally secularised according to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia.

Bishop Albert II of Halberstadt had a chapel erected in 1334 which soon became a major pilgrimage site.

The present parish church dedicated to St Peter was erected about 1345 and rebuilt in a Baroque style in the late 17th century.

With the Brandenburg Principality of Halberstadt, Schwanebeck was incorporated into the Prussian Province of Saxony by 1817.