The town is situated 19 km from Szolnok. When it was first mentioned in records in 1347, it already had a stone church, which showed that it was one of the most important villages of county Outer-Szolnok. At the beginning of the 15th century Jász people lived here. In 1727 Újszász ”puszta” was owned by István Orczy, who had a chapel built without a tower in memory of St. Stephen in his estate, which became resettled slowly. The core of the present settlement started to be built around the church from 1744. The neoclassical mansion was built by György Orczy around 1830. The present-day neo-Romanesque church was built by Béla and Andor Orczy in 1885. At the end of the 1890s the Orczys built another mansion in eclectic style on Szarvas hill. The huge, two-storey building is situated in the territory of the grove forest surrounding the former Szarvas runlet and Szarvas hill. In the mansion park around the building you can see rare plant species and indigenous trees. Mass and leisure time sports have long tradition in the town. One of the outstanding sports events is the running day held in the park forest of Újszász every year (since 1984). A special Chinese sport, shuttlecook has become popular in the town in recent years. In 1992 Újszász joined the association of regional development and cooperation of small regions in the vicinity of Szolnok. On 1 July 1997 it was given the rank of town by the president of the Hungarian Republic.