SWIDNICA

it is assumed that swidnica~schweidnitz in silesia, south-west of wroclav, became a town in 1250. it was always linked to wroclav, and thus its history is quite similar. until worldwar-2, it was predominantly a german city.

the by far most important building in swidnica~schweidnitz is the evangelical "church of peace", now a unesco heritage site.
this church was built from 1656 to 1657, and its architecture is exceptional. as the city was mostly catholic at that time, for this protestant church very harsh rules were set up:
> it had to be outside the city walls,
> no stones were allowed for building it,
> erecting a bell tower was forbidden.
so it was completely made from timber. however, it was abundantly painted inside, even including the ceiling. at a later time many art pieces were added, and two full-scale organs were installed.

the church of peace is very different to all classical churches - it is truly unique, and alltogether extremely impressive.