Świdnica

A town in Lower Silesia with a wooden Church of Peace on the UNESCO World Heritage List, a Gothic cathedral and a market square, reached from Wrocław Główny by regional train.

The Church of Peace seen from the corner of its grounds on an overcast day: a large timber-framed church with white walls crossed by dark beams, a steep dark roof with a small tower on the ridge, domed side chapels below it and a big tree at the right.

Krzysztof Popławski Wikimedia Commons CC BY 4.0

What it is

Świdnica is a town in Lower Silesia. Centuries ago it was the capital of the Piast duchy of Świdnica and Jawor. Its churches and its market square are what a visitor goes for.

The Church of Peace

The Church of Peace (Kościół Pokoju) is the Evangelical church of the Holy Trinity. It is a wooden, timber-framed building on the plan of a Greek cross, built after the Thirty Years’ War with the permission of the Catholic Habsburg emperor, and it dates from 1657.

Together with the Church of Peace in Jawor it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2001.

The emperor’s permission came with conditions meant to make the building hard: it had to be built of wood, clay and straw, not stone or brick. The first service was held in 1657. Inside, the ground floor and four storeys of galleries hold up to 7,500 people. The interior is Baroque: an 18th-century carved altar with a relief of the Last Supper above the altar stone, an 18th-century pulpit with figures of Faith, Hope and Love, and a 17th-century organ. The oak came from the family of Count Johann Heinrich von Hochberg, whose box faces the pulpit.

Inside the Church of Peace, looking down the red-carpeted aisle between dark wooden pews towards the organ: galleries painted blue and gold rise on both sides, and the organ with gilded pipes stands on a balcony under a painted ceiling.

The nave, looking towards the organ.

Jar.ciurus Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

The carved wooden pulpit of the Church of Peace on the left, crowded with white and gold figures of angels, and the altar beyond it under the painted wooden ceiling, between dark galleries lit by tall windows.

The pulpit, with the altar beyond it.

Fotozetka Wikimedia Commons CC BY 4.0

The cathedral and the Rynek

The Gothic cathedral of St Stanislaus and St Wenceslaus was begun in 1330.

It has been a cathedral since 2004, when Świdnica became the seat of a new diocese, and its tower stands over the town. In 2017 it was named a Monument of History (Pomnik historii).

Two pointed Gothic doorways in the pale stone west front of the cathedral, framed by carved pinnacles and stone figures, with their wooden doors open and visitors walking in.

The cathedral’s west doorways.

Paweł Schmidt Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0

The market square (Rynek) has a town hall in the middle and richly decorated townhouses around it.

The town hall of Świdnica from the air at sunset: a white tower with a clock and a dark Baroque spire rising from a yellow building with a red roof in the middle of the market square, colourful townhouses around it and hills on the horizon.

The town hall in the middle of the market square.

Kateryna Baiduzha Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0

A stone fountain on the cobbled market square: a figure holding a trident stands above sea horses on a carved column in an eight-sided basin, in front of a row of pastel townhouses, beside a street lamp hung with red and white flags.

A fountain on the market square.

Andrzej Otrębski Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0

A day on foot: from the station to the Church of Peace

The map follows one day out: the Koleje Dolnośląskie train from Wrocław Główny through Sobótka to Świdnica Miasto, then on foot from the station to the market square and the town hall, to the cathedral, and to the Church of Peace. It plays by itself; the stops are listed under it.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, under the ODbL: the rail line, roads, river, streets, paths, buildings, water and woods. The walk is routed with OSRM on OpenStreetMap data.

  1. Świdnica Miasto station
  2. Market square and town hall
  3. Cathedral
  4. Church of Peace

Getting there from Wrocław

Koleje Dolnośląskie (KD), the regional railway, runs direct trains from Wrocław Główny to Świdnica, to the stations Świdnica Przedmieście and Świdnica Miasto. One route goes through Sobótka, the town at the foot of Ślęża, so the mountain and the town lie on the same line. More on regional trains is on the trains page.

Checked 17 October 2026 Lines, stops and times change with every timetable, so this page prints none. Check KD’s timetable for the day you go, and look at the last connection back before you set out. The churches’ opening hours and prices are on their own pages below.

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