The historic town centre with the castle complex is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.

The predecessor of Náchod was a settlement called Branka (meaning 'gate') near the land gate, located in the area today known as Staré Město ("Old Town") with the Church of Saint John the Baptist from the 13th century.

The properties of the Smiřický family, who had been loyal to King Frederick V, were seized by the imperial treasury after the Battle of the White Mountain and sold to the House of Trčka of Lípa in 1623.

When Adam Erdman Trčka was assassinated together with his brother-in-law Albrecht von Wallenstein in Cheb in 1634, the domain was seized again and donated by the Emperor to his general Ottavio Piccolomini, later Duke of Amalfi.

[4][5] The Piccolominis extinct in 1783, the Náchod domain was inherited by the Desfours family and sold in 1792 to Duke Peter von Biron of Courland and Sagan, who established a theatre on the castle and significantly improved overall the level of cultural life in Náchod.

[4][5] When the duke died in 1800, his eldest daughter Katharina Wilhelmine (1781–1839) inherited Náchod and the Duchy of Sagan.

After her death, the princes of Schaumburg-Lippe (in today's Lower Saxony) bought Náchod and held the castle till 1945, though the domain system was abolished in the reform of 1849 and succeeded by public administration districts.

[5] Extensive border fortifications were built in and around Náchod in the years prior to World War II to protect the territory of Czechoslovakia against the threat of German invasion.

The I/33 road (part of the European route E67) connects Hradec Králové with Náchod and the border crossing.

The second main road that runs through Náchod is I/14 (specifically its section from Trutnov to Ústí nad Orlicí).

[14] The Church of Saint Lawrence is located in the middle of Masarykovo Square in the historic town centre.