[2] In 1291 it fell with the lands of Świdnica to the Silesian Duchy of Jawor, which upon the death of Duke Bolko II the Small in 1368 was ruled by the Kings of Bohemia.

The Polish-Saxon cabinet minister Erdmann II of Promnitz acquired the estates in 1721 and gained the privilege to fabricate woven goods by Emperor Charles VI.

The social hardship of the population in the course of the 19th century industrialisation was perpetuated by the famous Silesian author Gerhart Hauptmann in his play The Weavers, which is set in Peterswaldau.

During World War II, Nazi Germans operated a women's subcamp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in the town.

In June/July 1945, a local Jewish committee formed and more and more Jews arrived in the town, in the context of a repatriation agreement with the Soviet Union.