Svydnyk

Svydnyk [Свидник; Slovak: Svidník]. Map: Prešov region of Slovakia. The town arose through the merger of Vyshnii and Nyzhnii Svydnyk in 1943. It is mentioned in historical documents as early as 1330. Today Svydnyk has a gymnasium and a sewing, farming, and building tekhnikum. It has two museums, the Museum of the Dukla Battles and the Svydnyk Museum of Ukrainian Culture. The Festival of Ukrainian Song and Dance, renamed in 1977 the Ukrainian Cultural Festival in Czechoslovakia, has been held in Svydnyk since 1956. Writers and scholars, such as Yeva Biss, Oleksander Pavlovych, and Jiří Polívka, lived and worked there. Orest Zilynsky is buried in the local cemetery. The surrounding district includes 105 villages, 93 of which are Ukrainian (1980, 27,312 residents). Some of them (Bodružal, Dobroslava, Hunkovce, Korejovce, Krajné Čierno, Ladomirová, Myrol'a, and Nyžný Komárnik) have wooden churches which have been declared monuments of national culture by the government of Czechoslovakia.

[This article was updated in 2014.]