In 1259 or 1260, the village was burned in a Tatar raid (see Mongol invasion of Poland), and in 1285, Archbishop Jakub Swinka granted Kurzelów the Sroda Slaska town charter.

In the 14th century Kurzelów quickly developed, due to two reasons: convenient location along a merchant route from Kraków to Przedborz, and the support of the Archbishops, who turned the local church into a collegiate of St. Adalbert of Prague.

Kurzelów prospered in the Polish Golden Age, when it belonged to Lesser Poland's Sandomierz Voivodeship, and received privileges from Zygmunt Stary and Stefan Batory.

Residents of Kurzelów actively supported the January Uprising, for which Russian government decided to punish the town, reducing it to the status of the village in 1869.

In the Second Polish Republic, Kurzelów belonged to Kielce Voivodeship, and during World War II, it was an important center of anti-German resistance.