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.

[1] A large number of castles were built in the Bohemian Switzerland region in order to guard the trade routes.

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.

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.