According to linguist Heinrich Adamy, the name comes from the Polish word tur, meaning "aurochs", who built a hunting lodge in the area.

The settlement, along with its hamlets of Marszałki and Łyczyna continued to belong to the village of Kotorz Wielki until the eighteenth century.

The last owner of Turawa was Hubertus Count von Garnier-Turawa, a German nationalist member of the Prussian Landtag (1925-1932), who called for the revision of the interwar Polish-German border either peacefully or by force.

At the end of the nineteenth century, a chapel and cemetery were built on Bald Hill near the village, which came to be considered one of the most beautiful religious buildings in Turawa.

During World War II, the Germans operated the E394 and E560 forced labour subcamps of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp in the village.

[3] After Germany's defeat in the war, in 1945, the village became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s.

Construction on the current palace in Turawa began in 1730 at the behest of Martin Scholtz von Löwenckron to plans by the Opole-based architect Adam Tentschert.