It is the seat of the Gmina Stary Sącz (commune), and one of the oldest towns in the country, receiving Magdeburg rights in the 13th century.

Stary Sącz is located in bottom of the valley called Kotlina Sądecka, between two rivers - Dunajec and Poprad, at an altitude of 320 metres (1,050 feet) above sea level.

The history of the town dates back to the Early Middle Ages when Duchess Kinga of Poland, the daughter of the King Béla IV of Hungary and the wife of Duke Bolesław V the Chaste, received the land called Sącz, together with surrounding villages, from her husband in the year 1257.

An extremely advantageous location, on a very busy trade route to Hungary, fostered the town's rapid development.

One of Poland's biggest landscape parks stretches all over the range of the mountains Radziejowa and Jaworzyna in the Beskid Sądecki region.