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Rzeszow received city rights from King Casimir III the Great in 1354, and for centuries the trade routes connecting central Europe with the Ottoman Empire ran straight through it, making the city wealthy enough for the Lubomirski family to turn it into a cultural showpiece in the 17th century. Austrian rule from 1772 to 1918 left its own architectural layer on top of the medieval one, and by 1937 the aviation plant PZL Rzeszow had opened, giving the city a distinctly 20th-century industrial dimension.

Before World War II, around 14,000 Jews lived in Rzeszow, comprising more than a third of the city's population and contributing to a civic life that was almost entirely destroyed during the occupation.

The Main Market Square, with its Renaissance City Hall and restored facades, still conveys something of the city's former prosperity. Beneath the square, the Rzeszow Underground Cellars route threads through tunnels and vaults that merchants once used for storage and trade, and that civilians used as shelter during wars.