Christianity appeared very early on the island, so that already in the 5th century A.D. the bishopric had been formed, with its centre in the city of Krk and with the first known bishop, Andrija (680). The Croatian people inhabited the land in clans within the castles, and for that reason, today the island has four different dialects.
At the end of the 12th century from the original clans the famous Krk noblemen, the Frankopan family emerged.
This was the only family within the Adriatic islands to develop its power in the range of European emperors – their origin is from Vrbnik, and they even spread their rule to the continent - to Trsat, Bakar, Kraljevica, Crikvenica, Novi Vinodolski, as well as to Otočac, Brinje etc. so that at the height of their rule the Frankopans owned a territory equal to half of today's Croatia.
The first data regarding the settlement, connected the island with the Illiric tribes - Japodians and Liburnians, then with the Greeks when the island was part of the Elektridic or Apsirtidik islands – now known as the Kvarner islands.
Roman traces lead us to the end of the antique period and the first centuries of the new age period.
Some of the noblemen from this family were also Croatian Viceroys or banus. The first known Frankopan was Dujam I (1118.) and the last was Fran Krsto who was executed in 1671 by the emperor and king Leopold Habsburg.
The island of Krk fell under Venetian rule in 1480 as the last island on the Adriatic, when the noble Ivan Frankopan was tricked and dragged into Venetian captivity.
After the fall of the Croatian aristocracy - the Frankopans in the 15th century, Krk changed many rulers, from the Venetians, through to the French, the Austro-Hungarians, the Italians, the Germans, the Yugoslavians and finally, after five centuries, the island of Krk finally became an integral part of the Croatian corpus again.
