The village of Svinia is located in the Šariš Highlands in the valley of the Veľká and Mala Svinka. The village is one of the oldest villages in the former Šariš County. In the past it belonged to the Hungarian Szinyei-Merše family from 1262 until 1918. Merše became the founder of the family and had two sons - Benedikt and Pows - Peter. Both sons received large territories from King Andrew III and from Palatine Omodei. Omodei's son John of the House of Aba forcibly took these territories and captured Benedict's brother Peter in the process. He threatened him with death if he did not hand over all the deeds to the manor in Svina. This meant that Benedict had to exchange the entire donation from Bela IV, as well as certificates of ownership from Stephen V and Ladislaus IV, for his brother's life. They worked out a compromise and thus the whole affair passed without bloodshed. Merše's grandsons, the sons of Benedict: Nicholas, Peter Touth (Touth was a nickname, it meant Slovak), Dome (Dominic) and the youngest Merše divided the hereditary estates.
The village was first built as a manor house, but in the 15th century it was fortified in the manner of a manor house.
The Baroque manor house from the second half of the 18th century has been rebuilt in the Classicist style. It is rectangular in shape with a two-tract layout. It has an eleven-axis façade with a buttress, imagined columns and pillars. The facades have lozenge rhymes and longitudinal windows, and it has a mansard roof. The rooms are decorated with Prussian arches.
Svinia was a Catholic village until the 16th century, when the entire Merše family, who owned the manor house, converted to Protestantism. It follows that the serfs in Svinja also had to convert to Protestantism.
Since 1589, an evangelical preacher served services in the village and in the 17th century Krištof and Ladislav Merše had a Renaissance tower in the form of a crown added to the church, which is exceptional in that four bodies of the victims of the „Prešov slaughter“ lay under it. At the beginning of the 19th century, the church was taken away from the Protestants and is still Catholic today.
Below the church there are three tombs of the Szinyei-Mersa family. Two of them have tombstones with epitaphs. The church was very important during the period of Caraffa's atrocities, when the Protestants of Prešov were forbidden to build church buildings and to gather for divine services.
Svinia Manor is a part of Šariš castle roads
Source: municipality Svinia
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