 Vyshnivets is better known as a family estate of the Polish royal house of Wiśniowiecki (originally Ruthenian princes), which is known for switching from Eastern Orthodoxy to Catholicism (as part of Polonization) as well as the Cossack Hetman Dmytro "Baida" Vyshnevetsky, who established the first Zaporizhian Sich on the island of Small (Mala) Khortytsia on the Dnipro River in 1552 in defense of the lands.The area was first mentioned in 1395 soon after annexation of the Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia by the Kingdom of Poland when the first defensive castle was constructed in the area by Dmytro Korybut who had acquired the land from Great Prince Vitautas

The town is located on the Horyn River, a right tributary of the Prypiat.Before World War II the village was located in Poland.