The name of the village is of Polish origin and comes from the word
ryba, which means "fish". The oldest mention in documents comes from 1228, when part of fragmented
Piast-ruled Poland. A castle was built in the
Middle Ages, which was part of a chain of castles protecting the southern Polish border and trade routes. Two trade routes of regional importance passed through the village in the late medieval and early modern periods, one connecting
Wrocław,
Bolków and
Jelenia Góra with
Gryfów,
Lubań and
Zgorzelec, and the other with
Frýdlant and
Zittau. For centuries, the castle was the seat of the Reibnitz family, an ancient (
uradel) Silesian noble family, whose most prominent scion is
Princess Michael of Kent, member of the
British royal family. In the 1940s, several members of the
Home Army resistance organization, fled persecution in
Niedrzwica Duża and settled in Rybnica, where they continued their activities, and maintained contact with the resistance in nearby
Jelenia Góra. ==Transport==