The town was founded on August 17, 1806 on the location of a French army camp. It was given city rights by King Louis Napoleon of Holland in honour of the victory of his brother, emperor Napoleon.
Close to the town, there is an artificial hill called the Pyramid of Austerlitz. It was built in 1804 by the soldiers of general Auguste Marmont. It used to be a popular day out to climb the watch tower on top of the pyramid, but nowadays the tower is no longer open to the public, and the forest has grown too high to look very far anyway.