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

Rokycany consists of four municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census):[2] The term rokycan denoted a person who lives near willows (rokyty in old Czech).

At that time, the village was owned by the Bishop of Prague, and major Bohemian and German noblemen met here for diplomatic talks with Emperor Henry V.[5] At the end of the 13th century, bishop Tobiáš of Bechyně made from the settlement a market town and the episcopal court was replaced by episcopal castle.

Rokycany was repeatedly afflicted by various armies, most notably by the Swedish who almost completely burned the town.

In the 19th century, the traditional iron-ore mining and processing industry became main source of Rokycany's economy.

[5] On 7 May 1945, Rokycany was liberated by the United States Army which halted its eastward advance here, meeting with the allied Soviet troops in the eastern part of the town (creating the so-called demarcation line).

In the post-World War II era, the development of the town was carried out in line with the ruling communist regime.

The new massive construction activity focused on uniform tenement houses, from the 1960s built with concrete panels (so-called "panelák").

[10] Rokycany hosts Fluff Fest, a vegan hardcore punk festival which draws several thousand visitors from across Europe every July.

The festival has been described as a yearly "strain" on the town, which is otherwise unaccustomed to large numbers of foreign visitors and extreme music adherents, and brings a business boom especially in sales of vegetarian and vegan food.

The town hall is a Baroque building by architect Ignác Jan Nepomuk Palliardi, built in 1804–1808.

The stone Baroque fountain from 1827 stands in front of the so-called "Rokycan's House of Enlightenment".