[5] The first reference to Ropczyce comes from a document of 1252, which confirmed the donation of the land by the brothers Klemens and Marek Gryf to a Cistercian Abbey in Szczyrzyc near Limanowa.

As Ropczyce was situated close to the Sandomierz Forest (Polish: Puszcza Sandomierska), one of the biggest forests in southern Poland, which covers large parts of the Sandomierz Basin, it became a popular place for the Polish Kings to stay when they went hunting and fishing.

Under the patronage of the Polish Royals and subsequent trade agreements with Ruthenia, the town's future started to look very good.

It could then grow and develop, also due to its favourable location on an important trade route from Silesia and Lesser Poland to Ruthenia.

Around the 1550s the Parish Church was under the control of the Polish Brethren (Bracia Polscy, also called Arians or Socinians) for over a decade.

Ropczyce was plundered by Swedish troops in 1655 and then devastated in 1657 by the army of George II Rákóczi, the Prince of Transylvania.

However, during these times the whole region was systematically Germanised, from the system of administration, local by-laws, education to everyday life.

[6] In 1604, King Sigismund III Vasa granted Ropczyce with a law, following which only two Jewish families (of a district’s leaseholder and of a tax collector) were allowed to live in the town, however, they were strictly forbidden to "do business and produce alcohol..."[6]The 17th century was the time of the town’s stagnation and downfall.

Ropczyce was plundered by Swedish troops in 1655 and conclusively devastated in 1657 by the army of George II Rákóczi, the Prince of Transylvania.

However, Polish townsmen were not interested in it, and so Jews were the buyers, despite the fact that the ban on their settling in the town was still in effect.

The law was broken for the first time in 1675, when the Town Council allowed Józef Szmul, a Jew, to acquire a house at the Market Square under condition of renovating the building.

[17]Up until World War II Ropczyce was a shtetl (Yiddish: ראָפּשיץ, Ropshits, Ropshitz, Ropschitz) with a significant Jewish population.

The Germans occupied Ropczyce in September 1939 and immediately began brutalizing the Jewish population, at that time around 1000 people.

In July, the Germans shot 28 people, children and the elderly, and took the rest of the Jewish population to Sędziszów Małopolski.

[18] Ropczyce is located on the main West-East European E40 Highway, which goes from Calais in France via Belgium, across Germany, Poland, Ukraine and onto Russia and Kazakhstan.

However, the A4 is not regarded as a 'highway' in the Ropczyce area – it is by Western standards, just a regular, one-lane main A-road (although, it is currently being upgraded).

Other Polish cities located by the E40 are Wrocław, Opole, Katowice, Kraków, Tarnów, Rzeszów and Przemyśl.