page_title: Świebodzin
section_title: Attractions and sites of interest
hierarchical_section_title: Świebodzin / Attractions and sites of interest
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Christ the King Statue in Świebodzin
context_page_description: Świebodzin is a town in western Poland with 21,736 inhabitants. It is the capital of Świebodzin County. Since the Local Government Reorganization Act of 1998, Świebodzin has been part of Lubusz Voivodeship. It was formerly part of the Zielona Góra Voivodeship.
  Świebodzin is an important transportation hub, lying at the crossroads of the Polish national roads 2 and 3. The A2 motorway and S3 expressway cross near the town. Świebodzin is located 39 km northeast of Zielona Góra, one of the two voivodeship's capitals, 195 km northwest of Wrocław and 110 km west of Poznań; 70 km east of the German border and 130 km east of Berlin. The crowned statue of Christ in Świebodzin, completed in November 2010, is one of the world's tallest statues of Jesus.
context_section_description: The center of Świebodzin still contains remnants of the town's past as a medieval walled settlement, including two nearly intact towers and fragments of the town’s defensive walls and bastions. The central market square is dominated by the town hall, built around 1550 in the renaissance style and rebuilt in the 19th century with the addition of its prominent clock tower. The town hall still contains its original gothic vaults in the rooms of the Regional Museum and basement cafe. There are two large churches in the town center, the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and the Church of the Mother of God. The Church of St. Michael was first built in the second half of the 15th Century, and its neo-gothic façade was added in the second half of the 19th century. The neo-gothic Church of the Mother of God was built during the Imperial German period as a Protestant Church but was reconsecrated as a Catholic Church after World War II.
  In the summer of 2008, assembly of the Christ the King, a giant statue of a crowned Jesus Christ, began on a hill on the outskirts of the town. Intended to serve as a future site of pilgrimage, the statue was completed in November 2010, and is claimed to be the world's largest statue of Jesus, although if the crown is excluded the Cristo de la Concordia in Bolivia is still taller. Construction was funded by donations from local people and as far away as Canada. The existence of the statue has seen fellow Poles referring to the town jokingly as Rio de Świebodzineiro.
caption: Statue of Christ the King
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon IXUS 300 HS", "Image Orientation": "Rotated 90 CW", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2016:09:21 16:18:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "240", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4872", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1000", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "125", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:09:21 16:18:34", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:09:21 16:18:34", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "319/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "49/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3648", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2736", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3648", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2736", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3344", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1216000/79", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1368000/89", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}