In order to break Silesia's dependency on salt from Poland, Emperor Ferdinand I founded the demesne land Zum Neuen Saltze in 1563.

[4] The sea salt, originally from La Rochelle and the Iberian coast, was transported from Hamburg and Stettin (Szczecin) along the navigable Oder.

A flood in 1573 led to the relocation of the salt refinery to the nearby village of Modritz (Modrzyca); the office of the administrator is now the town hall.

[5] The entrance of Dutch and English merchants in the Baltic Sea at the end of the 16th century led to difficulties in the supply of unrefined salt.

[4] Neusalz developed into one of the largest ports on the Silesian Oder and handled the majority of salt traffic on the river.

[5] During World War II the town was the site of a forced labor subcamp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, whose prisoners were Jewish women from occupied Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany.

The town is featured in the documentary 5000 Miles, about a family from Wisconsin in the United States wishing to adopt a Polish child.

The city's professional sports club is volleyball team Astra Nowa Sól, which competes in the I liga (2nd tier).