The town is an important railroad junction, located on the main line which links Wrocław with Kłodzko and Prague.

The place is known for the former Kamieniec Abbey, established in 1209 as an Augustinian college by Bishop Wawrzyniec of Wrocław at the site of a former castle of Bretislaus II of Bohemia.

King Frederick II of Prussia hid here from Habsburg troops on 27 February 1741 during the First Silesian War.

Between 1838 and 1873 their daughter Princess Marianne of the Netherlands and her husband Prince Albert of Prussia had a new palace built in a Neogothic style according to the plans of Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

[3] In the final stages of the war, the palace was plundered and set on fire by the occupying Soviet Red Army.