Karpacz is situated in the Karkonosze Mountains – a resort with increasing importance for tourism as an alternative to the Alps.

In the early 12th century the area was generally uninhabited, as mentioned in the oldest Polish chronicle Gesta principum Polonorum.

[2] The first mention of permanent location within the current boundaries of the town is dated to the beginning of 15th century[3] and connected to the destruction of a village called Broniów, whose inhabitants moved to settle the area currently located at the altitude of the town's railway station.

During the Thirty Years' War, many Czech Protestants settled at the site of today's town.

The town was subsequently repopulated with Poles, who in turn were expelled from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union,[5] and eventually renamed Karpacz in 1946.