Świdnica

Świdnica stands on the Bystrzyca and was one of the great towns of medieval Silesia. Its walls enclosed a busy centre of crafts and brewing, and its beer was served in dedicated Świdnica cellars as far away as Prague and Kraków. From 1291 it was the capital of a Piast duchy; by the late fourteenth century its churches, markets and guilds reflected the wealth of a flourishing town. Its brewers held prized privileges: by the end of the fifteenth century almost three hundred houses had the right to produce beer.

Duke Bolko II died in 1368, but his widow held the duchy until 1392, when it passed to the Bohemian Crown. Świdnica resisted a Hussite attack in 1429. Under the Habsburgs it suffered sieges, fire and plague during the Thirty Years' War. The Peace of Westphalia allowed its Protestants to build a Church of Peace: constructed from perishable materials outside the walls, the vast timber church became a striking expression of their faith despite the restrictions placed upon it.

Prussia took Świdnica during the First Silesian War and made it a fortress. Austria captured it in 1761 during the Seven Years' War, only for Prussian forces to retake it the following year. The town's defences and its churches preserve the memory of a ducal capital that became a much-contested stronghold.