The location of Smolenice at the edge of the basin of Trnava, easy access, and fertility facilitated settlement of the land in the Paleolithic era.

The most significant period was the transition between the Bronze and Iron Ages, when the Celts around the 6th century BC had an oppidum above the village.

The village was first mentioned in 1256 under name villa Solmus, though the settlement started to grow in the late Middle Ages.

In the 14th century, the gothic Smolenice Castle was built above the village, as a part of a chain of fortifications protecting the passes through the Little Carpathians.

On 6 August 2016 Cologne artist Gunter Demnig erected five Stolpersteine for Friedrich Beinhacker and four members of the Sidon family, all murdered by the Nazi regime.