Świny | |
---|---|
Village | |
Location of Świny, Lower Silesian Voivodeship | |
Coordinates: 50°56′0″N 16°06′00″E / 50.93333°N 16.10000°ECoordinates: 50°56′0″N 16°06′00″E / 50.93333°N 16.10000°E | |
Country | Poland |
Voivodeship | Lower Silesian |
Powiat | Jawor |
Gmina | Bolków |
Population | 280 |
Świny [ˈɕfinɨ] (German: Schweinhaus) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Bolków, within Jawor County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland.
It lies in the Lower Silesia region on the Polish National road 3 north-east of Bolków, about 15 km (9 mi) south-west of Jawor and 70 km (43 mi) west of the regional capital Wrocław. The village has a population of 280.
A settlement on the historic road leading from the Kingdom of Poland across the Western Sudetes to the Duchy of Bohemia already existed in the 10th/11th century. According to legend, a Bohemian knight Biwoy about 716 killed a wild boar ("swine") by his own hand and dedicated it to the Přemyslid ancestress Libuše, wherefore he received her sister Kazi's hand and was enfeoffed with the surrounding estates. Indeed the forebears of the local Lords of Świny (Schweinichen) may had 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. Suini is thereby the oldest known castle in Lower Silesia. It again appeared as Zpini in a 1155 deed issued by Pope Adrian IV.