It notes the following passage: "In den verscheidenen Urkunden wird Sohrau einmal Żoraw, dann Żora und auch Sora genannt.

The chronicle also lists villages founded under the Polish law iure polonico, which in the course of urbanization were absorbed by the town.

[9] A catalog of coats of arms of German localities, published in 1898 in Frankfurt am Main, identifies the Polish name as Zar.

Żory is one of the oldest towns in Silesia, it was granted city rights according to Magdeburg Law on 24 February 1272 by Duke Władysław of Opole.

[11] After World War I, in 1918, Poland regained independence, and upon the 1921 Upper Silesia plebiscite, Żory passed to the Second Polish Republic, and was administratively part of the Silesian Voivodeship, though 69.4% of the citizens had voted for Germany.

Żory was the site of a battle between Poles and the invading Germans on the first day of World War II, September 1, 1939.

[12] Poles expelled in 1942 from several villages and the town of Szczyrk were also temporarily held in the camp before deportation to forced labour to Germany.

[14] In the final stages of the war, in January 1945, the Germans murdered 40 prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp in the city during a death march.

[16] According to a 2016 report by the World Health Organization, Żory was ranked as the 49th most polluted city in the European Union.

[17] According to the National Institute of Cultural Heritage, the following historic buildings are located in the city:[18] The full list can be found on this article on Polish Wikipedia.

There are also toll lines of MZK Jastrzębie-Zdrój, ZTZ Rybnik and ZTM, which connect Żory with neighbouring towns.

[28] The city has a Municipal Cultural Center called Miejski Ośrodek Kultury (MOK) with an auditorium where concerts and theatrical performances are held.

[31] The Town Museum (Muzeum Miejskie) is located in the historic Hearinga Villa and has two permanent exhibitions: Nasza toższamość (Our Identity) and Polskie poznawanie świata (Polish Learning about the World).