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Founding of the town, was about 1 century after Christ. It was at that time named Cetium, by the Romans. Which today is in the centre of the Old Town. Cetium was elevated to the status of "municipium aetium" by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the year 121/122 A.D., and was finally abandoned by the Romans around the year 400 A.D.

In the beginning of the 800 after Christ, the founding of a Benedictine monastery where dedicated to St. Hippolyte by Krems Minster. Slowly the town started to develop and in 1065 A.D., the consecration where on the newly built monastery church. Several alterations were made to this building during the course of the 12th and 13th centuries, in between the cathedral. About 1250 A.D., the construction work started on the town wall with provision made for the "Broad market".

In 1338 A.D., St Pölten where granted a new town charter, by Bishop Albrecht II of Passau. 
The settlement between Passau and church authorities happened in 1367. By virtue of which properties in the northern half of the town - to which the church had hitherto enjoyed the rights of usufruct - were returned to Passau, and furthermore, Passau was henceforth entitled to retain all earnings derived from the market.

Bishop Friedrich Mauerkirchner pledged in 1387 St. Pölten to the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus,  who in the year 1487 presented the town with a new coat of arms. In the late 1400 century, St. Pölten gained the status as a sovereign city.

Unsuccessful siege of St. Pölten in 1597 by peasants, during the Second Lower Austrian Peasants' War. But in the late 1600 century, the baroque town, St. Pölten, received its characteristic appearance under the supervision of the then resident architects Jakob Prandtauer (1660-1726) and Joseph Munggenast (1685-1741). This resulted in that in 1785, St. Pölten became a cathedral town. The bishop's seat was established in what had formerly been the Augustinian institution. Abolition of the old council constitution The council was replaced by a municipal authority. The function of the town judge was taken over immediately by the burgomaster

With the opening of the western railway in 1858- and then the construction of branch lines during the course of later decades - St. Pölten developed successively into an industrial town. And to not stop the development, a founding of major undertakings was med in the beginning of 1900 century. This were to prove decisive for the development of the town.

Second world war did also stop in St. Pölten, and this resulted in that 39 per cent of the town's houses where damaged or destroyed. But they where strong, and when the last major territorial incorporation wave was in 1972, the population of St. Pölten exceeds the 50,000 limit. 

In 1986, St. Pölten elevated to the status of provincial capital of Lower Austria. And in 1995 it became Euro-town.

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