The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.

Broumov consists of eight municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census):[2] The name is derived from the old Czech personal name Brum (also written as Brúm, Brun, Brún).

In 1213, King Ottokar I had granted the remote area around today's Broumov and Police nad Metují to the Benedictine monks of Břevnov Monastery in Prague, who began to colonize the lands.

[12] In 1275, the drapers in Broumov received from King Ottokar II the privilege of producing and selling cloth, and the production soon began to be exported.

[10] Many fires broke out and destroyed the original buildings except for the Church of the Virgin Mary and damaged the local castle.

In 1305 and following years, the castle was largely rebuilt and extended by one of the abbots into a fortified monastery complex with an abbey and Church of Saint Adalbert.

In the 16th century, the cloth production flourished and until the Thirty Years' War, the town was known as one of the biggest Bohemian producers and exporters of this article.

Broumov again suffered in the Silesian Wars from 1740 onwards, when troops of the Prussian Army plundered it and upon the 1742 Treaty of Breslau, the adjacent lands of Silesia and Kłodzko were cut off by the newly established Austro-Prussian border.

[13] After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, more than 400 citizens emigrated to Latin America, especially to Chile, where the village of Nueva Braunau was established near Puerto Varas in 1875.

[12][10] Upon World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, Broumov with its predominantly German population became part of the new state of Czechoslovakia according to the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain.

After the Munich Agreement, Broumov was occupied by Nazi Germany in October 1938 and incorporated into Reichsgau Sudetenland.

Pursuant to the Beneš decrees, the German-speaking population was expelled, including the monastery's monks, who re-established the Braunau in Rohr Abbey in Bavaria.

The Broumov Monastery was finally abolished in 1950; after the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the premises were returned to the Benedictines.

[19] Broumov has preserved historical centre similar to Silesian towns with a large rectangular market square with two parallel main streets running from both sides of the square and converging at both gates located on the opposite sides of the town.

In the historic centre there are many valuable burghers' houses, originally in the Gothic style and rebuilt in 16th, 18th and 19th centuries.