Its name, meaning "black river", comes from its dark colour in its upper course and the thick forest which originally overshadowed the narrow valley.

The Schwarza valley (German: Schwarzatal) parallels the axis of the Schwarzburg anticline (Schwarzburger Sattel), a structure that divides the Thuringian Forest to the northwest from the Thuringian Highland to the southeast.

[1] The Schwarzburg Anticline was created by the collision between Laurentia and Gondwana around 350 million years ago.

In 1442, the rights to the gold deposits of the Schwarza valley were granted to the Counts of Schwarzburg.

[3] Recreational placer miners continue to find occasional gold nuggets in the Schwarza to this day.