It was a private town owned by various Polish nobles, including the Kiszka, Radziwiłł and Krasiński families, administratively located in the Podlaskie Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland.

[2] During the January Uprising, on February 3, 1863, it was the site of the Battle of Węgrów, in which Polish insurgents defeated Russian troops and captured the town.

During the Polish–Soviet War, on August 19, 1920, it was the site of a battle between Poles and the retreating Russian 16th Army.

[4] The town was liberated from German occupation by the Polish underground Home Army in August 1944 during the Operation Tempest.

Węgrów is home to Odlewnia dzwonów Braci Kruszewskich (Kruszewski Brothers Bell Foundry), founded in the 19th century, which has cast more than 2,500 bells that have been installed in Poland and other countries, even as distant as Rwanda and Papua New Guinea.