Dębica lies at the border of two geographical regions of Poland – the Carpathian Piedmont in southern districts of the town, and the Sandomierz Basin in its north, along the Wisłoka river.

A drive to Kraków (approximately 120 km) takes about an hour, while Rzeszów, the capital of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, located east of Dębica, can be reached in under 30 minutes.

[citation needed] Dębica has been home to two branches of higher education institutions: One of the oldest documented references to this area dates back to the year 1293.

Dębica was conveniently located along the main merchant route from Kraków to Lwów, but the newly founded town struggled to compete with older urban centers in the area, such as Pilzno and Ropczyce.

In 1446, King Władysław III of Poland authorized annual fairs to be held on Ash Wednesdays, spurring the town's growth.

Despite this, Dębica remained a small town for many years, located in Pilzno County, part of the Sandomierz Voivodeship in the province of Lesser Poland.

Without a defensive wall for protection, the town was vulnerable to invasions by the Tatars, Swedes, and Hungarians, who frequently burned or plundered it.

To prevent the complete disappearance of Dębica, its owners exempted residents from all taxes for 14 years, also allowing them to collect free timber and firewood in local forests.

Dębica was completely destroyed during the Great Northern War, and the destruction was so severe that the town slowly turned into a farming village.

A battle between Poles and Russians took place here during the Bar Confederation, and in 1772, as a result of the First Partition of Poland, Dębica was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, as part of newly established Galicia, where it remained until November 1918.

[3] Bad times came to an end in the second half of the 19th century, when the Austrian government decided to build a main West-East railroad line (see Galician Railway of Archduke Charles Louis), connecting two major urban centres of Galicja - Kraków and Lwów.

During several campaigns, Dębica was occupied by Russian, Austrian, Hungarian and German troops, which fought in this area for many months in 1914 - 1915.

It was a huge public works project, aimed at fighting unemployment in this overpopulated part of Poland, as well as creating heavy industry, concentrated on the production of arms.

Among several factories built in the town at that time, the most important was Stomil (now called Tire Company Dębica, and belonging to the Goodyear).

[4] The Germans created a ghetto for the town's Jewish population, eventually killing most of them either on the spot or in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

In the forested hills south of the town, strong Polish underground forces operated, with numerous units of the Home Army (AK).

In early 1944, units of the local Armia Krajowa district unsuccessfully tried to blow up a train with Hans Frank, which was passing through the village station at Czarna Tarnowska, some 15 kilometres (9 miles) west of Dębica.

On the outskirts of Dębica, near the villages of Pustków and Blizna and several neighboring ones, the Germans established a massive military base called Heidelager in the fall of 1941, which included the Blizna V-2 missile launch site for weapons testing, and the training of new Ukrainian collaborationist military formations including the SS Galizien Division.

Also implicated in war crimes was Wilhelm Schitli, commander of the "Jewish camp" at the SS training area HL-Heidelager from October 1942 to September 1943.

This was due to the creation of Kombinat Rolno-Spozywczy Igloopol, which, under an influential Communist dignitary Edward Brzostowski, developed very fast.

Igloopol built a huge factory and a completely new district, with numerous condominiums, located on the northern side of the rail line.

Another team, Igloopol Dębica, was founded in 1978 and is the brainchild of a prominent activist of Polish communist party, Edward Brzostowski.

Brzostowski was for some time Minister of Agriculture and director of Polish Football Association, so his favorite team prospered in soccer as well as in boxing, achieving significant successes.