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

On 27 September 1265, Ottokar II issued a decree in which he ordered the lokator Conrad of Lewendorf to take care of setting up the new town.

After the Hussite Wars, Germans were expelled and Polička became a purely Czech town.

In 1547 after Ferdinand I got to power, Polička was punished by suspension of its rights, fined, and its real estate was confiscated.

[4] In the second half of the 16th century, the town prospered and Renaissance-style buildings started to be built.

Polička did not prosper well during the Thirty Years' War either and was conquered and looted several times.

[5] Polička kept its baroque appearance until 1845 when it was hit by another fire, which destroyed most of the houses and the Church of Saint James the Great.

After World War II, the town lost about thousand inhabitants which left to the abandoned areas from where the original German population was expelled.

The largest employer based in the town is Ravensburger Karton, manufacturer of toys and games.

Polička is located on the railway line heading from Česká Třebová and Svitavy to Skuteč.

Both the town hall and the Marian column were probably designed by the architect František Maxmilián Kaňka.