The name of the municipality is a diminutive form of the word hradiště in Czech and gród in Polish, meaning 'gord'.

The beginnings of Hrádek can be traced back to the first half of the 12th century, when a small fort was built on a trade route running through the Jablunkov Pass around 1119.

[2] Hrádek began to develop more rapidly at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, when about 900 people working mainly in agriculture lived there.

According to the censuses conducted in 1880–1910 the population of the municipality grew from 798 in 1880 to 886 in 1910 with the majority being native Polish-speakers (between 98.1% and 100%) accompanied by Czech-speaking (at most 0.7% in 1910) and German-speaking people (at most 0.6% in 1910).

Following the Munich Agreement, in October 1938 together with the Trans-Olza region it was annexed by Poland, administratively adjoined to Cieszyn County of Silesian Voivodeship.

[7] The I/68 road (part of the European route E75), which connects the D48 motorway with the Czech-Slovak border in Mosty u Jablunkova, passes through the municipality.

According to local legend, it was the home of the infamous knight Belko, who plundered merchants and murdered people, and committed suicide when his conscience overwhelmed him.