[1] Located on the San River and around 52 km (32 mi) south of Przemyśl, Sanok lies directly by the Carpathian Mountains.

This historic city is situated on the San River at the foot of Castle Hill in the Lesser Poland (Małopolska) region.

It lies in a wooded, hilly area near the national road number 28, which runs along southern Poland, from Ustrzyki Dolne to Wadowice (340 km or 211 mi away).

Before World War II, the Oslawa and San Rivers line was designated the wild frontier between Poles and Lemkos.

In 981, Sanok along with several other Cherven gords, then inhabited by the Slavic tribe of Lendians, was made a part of Red Ruthenia, when Vladimir I of Kiev invaded the area and took it over from Poland.

During the Galicia–Volhynia Wars, Sanok was seized by King Casimir III of Poland, who reconfirmed its municipal status on 25 April 1366, and made it a royal city of the Polish Crown.

Marcin Bielski states that Bolesław I the Brave had settled some Germans in the region to defend the borders against Hungary and Kievan Rus', who later turned to farming.

Maciej Stryjkowski mentions German peasants near Przeworsk, Przemyśl, Sanok, and Jarosław, describing them as good farmers.

As early at the 17th century, an important trade route went across Sanok connecting the interior of Hungary with Poland through the Łupków Pass.

As a result of the First Partition of Poland (Treaty of St-Petersburg dated 5 July 1772), Sanok was attributed to the Habsburg monarchy.

The course of the river Dunajec and that of the San, both in West Galicia, marked the two successive stages in the breakthrough battle which initiated the Austro-German offensive of 1915 on the eastern front.

Wisłok Valley was one of the strategically important Carpathian rivers bitterly contested in battles on the Eastern Front of World War I during the winter of 1914–1915.

In 1918 Poland regained independence and control of the town and within the interwar Second Polish Republic it was the seat of the Sanok County in the Lwów Voivodeship.

Some of the Jews emigrated to Canada and the United States in the early 1900s with Sanoker Burial Societies spreading throughout New York and other regions where they settled.

The following century a Slavic fortified town (gord) was created there and initially served as a center of pagan worship.

On Fajka hill, where probably the first settlement of Sanok was situated, some remains of an ancient sanctuary and a cemetery were found, as well as numerous decorations and encolpions in Kievan type.

The local ice hockey team is STS Sanok,[20] which has won the Polska Hokej Liga league title twice, in the 2011/2012 and 2013/2014 season.

The Centre includes: the artificial speed skating oval Tor Błonie, a complex of indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a hotel, a tourist hostel, a camp-site, a sports stadium with technical facilities, etc.