It is located at the Malá Fatra National Park and also serves as a tourist resort.

The name is derived from Proto-Slavic varъ (Slovak: var, "boiling").

In the middle of the 13th century as terra Warna it was property of the Cseszneky de Milvány family.

[6] In 1993, the local government named one of the streets after Jozef Tiso, a president of the First Slovak Republic, the client state of Nazi Germany.

This action sparkled controversy amongst some people and in 2021 a law enforcement authority launched a criminal investigation.