Every design for Świebodzin

The first surviving record of Świebodzin, as Swiebosin, dates from 1302, and the name itself comes from the Polish personal name Świeboda, related to the word for freedom. For more than two centuries it was a Silesian exclave, cut off from the rest of the province.

Its position explains a great deal. Świebodzin sits in the Łagów Lake District at a meeting of roads that has mattered for centuries: the old trade routes linking Silesia with Pomerania and Lusatia with Poznań once crossed here, and today the A2 motorway and the S3 expressway meet close to town. In the 15th and 16th centuries Schwiebus, as it was then called, was known for brewing beer and exporting cloth. Two small lakes, Trzcinno and Zamecko, lie within the town limits, and the earliest fortification is linked to the western bank of Zamecko.

Most visitors now know it for the Figura Jezusa Chrystusa Króla Wszechświata, a crowned statue of Christ completed in November 2010 and one of the tallest in the world. Seen from the road, its crowned head rising above the town, it is the image that tells you you have reached Świebodzin.