Historically considered as part of Upper Lusatia, although more closely associated with Lower Silesia in the early 14th century and from 1815.

Besides Pieńsk the family held a number of other towns and territories on both banks of the Lusatian Neisse river.

[4] In 1321 local Polish Duke Henry I of Jawor confirmed the rights of the Penzig family to the settlement.

[6] Overall, 42 Polish prisoners of war died in the hospital,[4] and the bodies of the deceased were burned on the spot and buried at the local cemetery.

In accordance to the Potsdam Agreement, the German population was expelled and the settlement was resettled by Poles, many of whom were displaced from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union.