The first settlement in the area dates back to the second half of the 5th millennium BC (Middle Neolithic Age).

Three individual small villages existed during the first centuries of Ottoman rule there—Mala (Little), Sredna (Middle) and Golyama (Greater) Rahovitsa.

During the Bulgarian National Revival, Gorna Oryahovitsa gradually turned into an economically strong settlement.

Vasil Levski organised a revolutionary committee in Gorna Oryahovitsa during the first half of 1869 and later visited the town two more times.

During the preparation of the April uprising Gorna Oryahovitsa was designated as a centre of the First Revolutionary District with Stefan Stambolov as Chief Apostle.

After the failure of the April Uprising, Georgi Izmirliev "Makedoncheto" (the Macedonian), one of the local leaders, was hanged in the centre of Gorna Oryahovitsa.

Apart from the major sugar factory Zaharni Zavodi Ltd. the town hosts numerous smaller firms producing sweets and pastries.

The factory first opened in 1913 and in 1926 it expanded to produce ethanol, utilizing the molasses, which is a byproduct of sugar cane processing.

The following year a nearby confectionery factory was purchased and new production units were put in operation to produce pottery, glucose, potassium carbonate and dry fodder.

During the years of socialism the company continued its development, buying new machines and opening new factories whose products were exported to the Balkans, USSR, Turkey and other countries.

Many of its products such as menthol candies, halva, turkish delight and lemon jelly slices could be found in almost any Bulgarian home.

Today Zaharni Zavodi is the largest food production complex in Bulgaria consisting of several factories – for sugar production, for confectionery, for ethanol and high-protein fodder, a printing house, a 12 MWe thermal power plant and a mechanical repair plant.