The name was inspired by the Swiss artists Adrian Zingg and Anton Graff, who were reminded of their homeland by the geography of northern Bohemia.

The region had been very sparsely populated since ancient times by a few Germanic, Slavic and Celtic tribes, but was finally colonised in the 12th century by German-speaking settlers.

For example, the artist Ludwig Richter or the composer Carl Maria von Weber, who set his famous opera Der Freischütz in the vicinity of Rathen.

In 1999, the Czech government decided to create the Bohemian Switzerland National Park to its originally envisaged extent.

On 1 January 2000 the valuable forest and rock landscape, the Kamenice Gorge and the area around the Růžovský vrch were given national park status.