Humenné is surrounded by ruins of medieval castles and an open-air museum of architecture situated in the town park.

Thanks to its advantageous location and pleasant climate, preconditioned by the neighboring mountains, the town has been an attractive place for people since the Stone Age, which is evidenced by a number of archeological findings.

The Slavic forefathers of the Slovaks gradually moved to the basin of Humenné during the great migration of peoples, starting in the 5th century.

An intensive and organized settlement of this area started as late as in the middle of the 13th century, after the Mongol raids.

The history of Humenné is closely connected with the Drugeth (Drugets, Drugetovci), a distinguished aristocratic family originally from Naples, who, accompanying the king Charles Robert of Anjou, came to the Kingdom of Hungary (the territory of present-day Slovakia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary) at the beginning of the 14th century.

The Drugeths made Humenné their seat and changed it into the centre of one of the largest feudal dominions in Upper-Hungary.

This was also the time of an ever-increasing influence of shepherd colonization from Transcarpathia by the so-called Walachians (Ruthenes, Poles, and Romanians).

The abolition of some feudal duties and the reforms of Maria Theresa promoted the development of crafts, and Humenné became the seat of the so-called "salt office".

The Andrássy family from Transylvania started to influence the history of Humenné in the 19th century, a period characterized by economic growth.

A short period of the existence of Czechoslovakia between the two world wars proved to have positive effects upon the life of Humenné.

Then the construction of a plant for the production of textile polyamide fibres, the present Chemlon company, triggered a real chain effect on the town's growth.

In August 2015, the licence of ŠK Futura was bought by FK Drustav Svidník, but the Slovak Football Association rules do not allow to change club names only a few days before the start of the season.