Svirzh was first mentioned in 1416 as Szwyrzsz, and then later as Swerz (1443), Swyrz (1456), Swierz (1578) and so on. It initially belonged to the
Lwów Land in the
Ruthenian Voivodeship of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and to the Świrski noble family and was referred to as an oppidum (market town). In 1484, Andrzej and Marcin Świrski established a Roman Catholic parish. In 1581, the new brick church was built. The castle was built in the 16th century. The Cetner noble family ruled in the village in the middle of the 16th century. During the
First Partition of Poland in 1772, the village became part of the new
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria of the
Austrian Empire (from 1804). In the 19th century, the village had many owners: Sierakowski, Straczewski, Pierzchała, Wiktor, Iliasiewicz, Czaykowski, Tustanowski and Krzeczunowicz. In the early 20th century, the village of Irena (Wolański) Pinińska, whose second husband was Mr.
Robert Lamezan de Salins, a general in the Austrian and Polish armies. The last noble owner was the general's daughter, Irena, and her husband,
Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski. After the end of the
Polish-Ukrainian War in 1919, the village became part of the
Second Polish Republic. In 1921, Świrz had 405 houses with 2293 inhabitants, of which 2174 Poles, 109 Ruthenians, 7 Jews (nationality), 3 other nationalities, 1894 Roman Catholics, 215 Greek Catholics, 184 Jews (religion). During
World War II, after the
Soviet invasion of Poland, Svirzh first belonged to the Soviet Union and from 1941, after the conquest by the German
Wehrmacht, to the
General Government under German control. In 1944, 14 Poles were killed by a subgroup of the organization of Ukrainian nationalists,
OUN-UPA. On 18 July 1944, in
Operation Burza, a German fleet of vehicles was attacked by the
Home Army and 40 people in the escort were killed. ==Main sights==