A castle built in 1377-1382 by the Hospitallers, later a hunting residence, owned by the municipality of Banie since 2011, with a renovated roof and tower.
The castle in Swobnica is a 14th-century castle, entered in the heritage register together with a park with a horse chestnut avenue. It was built by the Knights Hospitaller of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg in 1377-1382, and after many rebuildings the building still stands by Lake Grodziskie. Since 2011 it has belonged to the municipality of Banie, and since then its roof and tower have been renovated.
The Hospitallers began building the castle with the consent of the dukes of Szczecin Swantibor I and Bogislaw VII, issued in 1377. In 1382 they moved their commandery here after the townspeople of Chojna captured and burned their castle in Rurka. They chose a peninsula on Lake Grodziskie: the castle was surrounded by water on three sides, and from the west a moat cut the peninsula off from the land. The brick walls on a stone foundation were between 15 and 18 m high. In the corner stood a massive tower, the bergfried, originally 31 m high, with a prison dungeon in its lower part. In the 15th century a Gothic middle wing with a treasury and the commander's residence was added.
After the Thirty Years' War the order was removed from Swobnica in 1648, and in 1690 the castle was taken over by the Hohenzollerns of Schwedt, who held it until 1945. In 1730 it was rebuilt in the Baroque style as a hunting residence: the northern and southern buildings were demolished, and on the site of the oldest Gothic house a palace wing with an axially marked entrance was created. During the Second World War the castle stored the monument of Frederick II the Great from Szczecin, and in 1945 the building was damaged.
In the time of the People's Republic of Poland the complex belonged to a state farm, and the main body was a granary. The castle was devastated in 1954 and was not renovated for decades. In 2008 the northern wing collapsed. In November 2011 the owner handed the castle over to the municipality of Banie thanks to the work of the Swobnica Castle Society, which made it possible to begin renovation. In 2012 the main part of the castle was covered with a new roof, and in autumn 2013 the renovation of the medieval tower was completed.
The sources describe the roof and tower repairs of 2012-2013, but do not say whether, and on what terms, its interiors can be entered. It should not be assumed that they are accessible.
The castle lies outside the village centre, and a cobbled avenue with a row of lime trees and horse chestnuts leads to it. It is a three-wing building, originally Gothic, on a square plan with a side of 50 m and an inner courtyard. The tower is 31 m high, with a square cross-section at the base and a circular one higher up. To the west there is a forecourt with two brick farm buildings. The park with the chestnut avenue was entered in the register in 1980, and the lake by which the castle stands has largely dried up.
In the village stands the St Casimir's Church, about 1.1 km from the castle.
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