About the Svijany brewery
The first mention of Svijany yard, over the years, extended by a brewery, dates back to 1346, when it belonged to Cistercian monks from the monastery Hradiště. Around 1420 it was bought by Czech nobleman and an important court-clerk Jindřich of Vartenberk. He managed to keep it until his death, however, after it it was put in pawn by the Emperor Zikmund to Hynek of Valdštejn, and together with the castle Rohozec, half of Turnov and manor na Skalách it belonged to Valdštejn reign of Malá Skála.
Valdštejns kept Svijany yard for 102 years. After that it was sold to the Supreme Burgrave of Prague Jan of Vartenberk. His son, Adam of Vartenberk, apparently felt the need to fill the treasury, and therefore built a brewery in 1564. At the same time, there has been a reorganization of Svijany yard into a fortress, which the followers of Adam significantly expanded and turned into a Renaissance fortress. In 1602 the Svijany brewery with a fortress gained Jáchym Ondřej Šlik, a Habsburg rebel who ended his life on the scaffold in the Old Town in 1621. Svijany then became part of a Valdštejn property, who have ran the household until 1814. Under their reign the old fortress was converted into a Renaissance chastle, structurally modified and extended to the neighboring brewery.
In 1820 the Svijany manor was bought by a Prince Karel Alain from Rohan family. During their reign the Castle became part of Sychrov manor and served as an administrative building and as accommodation of officials. In 1892 a brewer Antonin Kratochvíle leased the brewery from Rohan family and in 1909 he bought it. Family dynasty Kratochvíle worked in the brewery until 1939, when intensive investments and the economic crisis led Antonin Kratochvíle younger to sell the brewery in an auction where it regained Prince Alain Rohan.
The brewery and the castle were beutified during the centuries until 1945, when the brewery was confiscated and subsequently nationalized and became a part of
North Bohemian breweries.
In 1990 state enterprise Pivovary Vratislavice nad Nisou was founded and Svijany became part of it. In 1997 Svijany became part of Pražské pivovary a.s. and Svijany brewery got into the sales crisis.
A change for the brewery came in 1998 when a company Pivovar Svijany, s.r.o. was established and became an owner of the brewery. Thanks to the hard work and faith in the traditional way of brewing beer better times followed.