Kudowa-Zdrój is one of the oldest European spa towns where heart and circulatory system diseases were cured.

The downtown area features a park styled on 17th century revival, with exotic plants and a mineral water pump room.

The town has several historical and heritage sites such as the Chapel of Skulls within the Czermna district of Kudowa, an ossuary containing the bones or skeletal remains of thousands.

Another site is the Basilica of Wambierzyce, nicknamed "Silesian Jerusalem", and one of the most popular Catholic pilgrimage destinations in Poland.

[2] It is first mentioned in a document by Henry the Elder (1448–1498), son of the Hussite Czech king George of Podebrady.

In 1625 (or, as some sources say, as early as 1621), G. Aelurius, a Protestant Lutheran monk, wrote in his work "Glaciografia" about the great taste of the mineral waters from Kudowa.

Owing to the development of business and industry, a railway line to Kłodzko (then under the name Glatz) and a local power plant grew in importance.

Refugees of the Greek Civil War also settled in the town, as they found employment in the Zakrze textile factory.