Rybnik is a city in southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship. Rybnik is located close to the border with the Czech Republic and just outside the southern border of the largest urban area in Poland, the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union. Rybnik is about 290 km south of Warsaw and about 100 km west of Kraków. The city of Rybnik has a population of about 141,000, and its metropolitan area is 0.7 million. The Rybnik area is an important economic region of Poland, and increasingly visible center of culture. In contrast to the central part of the Upper Silesian Industry Area a short distance to the north, Rybnik enjoys the reputation of a "green" city having a relatively clean environment. While the city is no centre of tourism, it does have various interesting sights and opportunities for recreation. To the north-east of the built-up area, there is a reservoir (Zalew Rybnicki) on the river Ruda, which serves as a cooling water source for the power station. Surrounded by forests, it offers swimming, fishing, sailing and surfing opportunities, and due to the power station's waste heat it is warm enough all year to be a habitat for grass carps. The Beskidy Mountains, a popular recreational area, also for skiing, are within a 1-2 hours drive. Sights worth visiting: the neo-gothic basilica of St. Anthony (Bazylika sw. Antoniego), the building of the former district authority (1887), the neo-classical new town hall (1928), the neo-classical old town hall with clock-tower, today housing the registry office and the museum of local history, the Church of St. Catherine (Kosciól sw. Katarzyny) (1534), the Church of St. Lawrence (Kosciól sw. Wawrzynca) (1717), a late Baroque estate house (1736), a Piast castle from the early 13th century, completely redesigned in the 18th century.

The lowest amount of pro-German votes was registered in the districts of Rybnik and Pszczyna (Pless). The city and the largest part of the district of Rybnik were attached to Poland; Rybnik thus became part of a Polish state for the first time since 1526. The referendum and eventual division of Upper Silesia were accompanied by three Silesian Uprisings, the first of which (in 1919) was centered on Rybnik. Within the Second Polish Republic of the interwar period, Rybnik was part of the Silesian Voivodeship, which enjoyed far-reaching political and financial autonomy. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the border city Rybnik returned under the rule of Germany, being in the part of Poland that was directly incorporated into the German state. The population was ethnically categorized and either "re-Germanized" or disfranchised and partially deported into the General Government as Poles. After the eventual German defeat which ended World War II in the European theatre of war in 1945, Rybnik was once more integrated into Poland, the territory of which was now being shifted westward on Stalin's initiative. Rybnik thus ceased to be German-Polish border city. Its population was again categorized to be either "re-polonized" or forcefully resettled to Germany. A large portion of ethnic Germans from Rybnik eventually settled in the West German city of Dorsten (District of Recklinghausen), which eventually became one of Rybnik's twin towns in 1994. In the post-war period, coal mining continued to gain importance. The 1970s saw the construction of a coal-fired power station, which is important for power generation in the region and beyond. A reservoir on the river Ruda was constructed to provide it with cooling water. In 2002, the University of Economics (Akademia Ekomomiczna), the University of Silesia (Uniwersytet Slaski), both in based Katowice, and the Silesian Polytechnic University (Politechnika Slaska) based in Gliwice established a joint campus in Rybnik to improve academic training opportunities in the area.