Nymburk consists of five municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census):[2] The name is derived from the Middle High German expression ze der Niuwen Burk, meaning "at the new castle".

The town was surrounded by burnt-brick walls with about fifty towers and two defensive ditches fed from the Elbe.

[4] During the Thirty Years' War, Nymburk was burned and looted, and the fortifications were almost completely destroyed.

[7] JDK is a large company that manufactures refrigeration equipment in Nymburk and exports it all over the world.

Since 2005, the Chinese company Changhong has used a factory in Nymburk for the final assembly of LCD TVs for the European market.

The dominant feature of the town is the Gothic brick Church of Saint Giles, built in 1280–1380.

This church, together with the preserved buildings of the Nymburk fortification, is a unique example of brick Gothic (originally North German) architecture in the Czech lands.

Other important cultural monuments of Nymburk are the Turkish tower (the former waterworks from 1597), the Plague column (built in 1717), the Chapel of St. John of Nepomuk (originally a part of the Dominican monastery), the Bohumil Hrabal Grammar School, the Nymburk Synagogue, the Tourist Information Centre, the water tower and the Old Fisher House.