Vrbovsko was first mentioned on 22 February 1481 in a document freeing the citizens of
Grič from tariffs in Vrbovsko and elsewhere. In 1785, it was declared a
royal free city, and was granted a city
magistrate and court. there was a proposal in the Hungarian press to build a
wagonway through the
Jozefina then up to Vrbovsko and from there along the
Lujzijana, but because of the steep
grade from
Brod na Kupi to Rijeka, they changed the plan for the wagonway to be drawn to Senj instead of Rijeka, only for the protest of both Rijeka and Karlovac to kill the plan altogether. On 21 February 1852 by a decree of the
Ban of Croatia and Slavonia,
Josip Jelačić, a Chamber of Commerce and Industry () was to be founded in Rijeka with jurisdiction over Vrbovsko. It was founded, and began to function on the 11th of March that year. In 1860–1879,
Matija Mažuranić wrote a 62 folio manuscript today titled Writings on the Building of Roads in Gorski Kotar and Lika (), today with signature
HR-
ZaNSK R 6424. In 1887,
Sv. Ivana Nepomuka was demolished because of its state, the new church being finished in 1895, only to be demolished in 1901 and rebuilt again in 1904 as the present building, in
Neo-Gothic style. Like most volunteer fire departments in the region, it has taken on a larger societal role than its city counterparts, to the point of having its own
brass band. Today the DVD Vrbovsko is one of the components of the
VZ grada Vrbovsko. In 1900, the cemetery chapel
Gospe Karmelske, dedicated to
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was built in 1900.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia A 22 December 1939 decision as part of
agrarian reforms by
Ban Šubašić to confiscate the forest property in Vrbovsko and surroundings of the
Thurn and Taxis family,
Kálmán Ghyczy and Nikola Petrović resulted in a legal dispute known as the
Thurn and Taxis Affair, in part because of the relative status of the family and in part because of the proximity to the Italian border.
WWII 1941 During
WWII, 273 people were killed from the kotar of Vrbovsko, of which 101 by Croats, 56 by Italians, 48 by Serbs, 12 by Germans and 12 by Bulgarians. In May, the Ustaše began arresting prominent Serbian men in Vrbovsko, focusing on known or suspected
JRZ and
Chetnik members or sympathisers.
SFR Yugoslavia At the end of the war, Vrbovsko's municipal notary () and legal representative of , Matija Paviša, was in Ogulin with Ante Pocrnić. Paviša warned Pocrnić not to return to Vrbovsko, which he did anyway, being mobilised by the Partisans and sent off to the
Istrian front, where he died. Fearing retribution, Paviša retreated with the Ustaša column towards Austria, avoiding the
Bleiburg repatriations, however, because he became ill with the
flu on the way and returned to Vrbovsko. There, he was arrested and put on trial before judge Floršić, a
Jewish judge of the new administration, who merely sentenced him to temporary house arrest until the political situation calmed down. After rehabilitation, Paviša served as a misdemeanor judge and then as the municipality secretary until retirement.
Recent In the 2010s, the
Presvete Euharistije chapel was built in the basement of the parish priest's house. On 30 August 2012, a leak in Vrbovsko forced a water shutoff in the town. Vrbovsko was hit by the
2014 Dinaric ice storm. From 31 January to 2 February 2014, while S and SW
geostrophic wind dominated,
freezing rain fell on Gorski Kotar,
glazing the entire region. It wrecked roofs, power lines and forests, causing power loss for about 14,000 households in Gorski Kotar, or about 80% of its population. Because of power lines falling on the A6, the highway was closed in of
Rijeka between
Bosiljevo and
Kikovica, and between Kikovica and Delnice in the direction of Zagreb. It took about 10 days to restore essential infrastructure to the region, and within months electricity was back in most of its former range, but at a cost of about 84.4 million
HRK to
HEP, whose
Elektroprimorje Rijeka branch was responsible for restoring electricity in most of the affected area. At the time it was the largest peacetime damage since the
Secession from Yugoslavia, even without counting the forestry losses. Thanks to relatively mild ice accumulation (
SPIA 4), the
Šumarija Vrbovsko fared well relative to western forestry branches, losing mainly diseased and very poorly anchored trees. Clearing blocked forestry roads and forest paths would take years, and thanks to the declining population some were never cleared. A dedicated winter service base of the
Komunalac Vrbovsko was set up in Vrbovsko to assist with repairs; alongside the local volunteer firefighters and
Luko d.o.o. they had been doing most of the initial work in clearing the roads. Some remained without power for 5 days. On 12 December 2017, a severe wind hit Vrbovsko, leaving its elementary school without a roof and blocking traffic in the area. On 8 June 2018, the
Lovnik water storage unit was found to have a
coliform bacteria concentration of 391/100ml, while the Hambarište water storage unit had a concentration of 570/100ml, and both
Escherichia coli and
Enterococcus bacteria were present. In 2021, the old Mance house was reconstructed, an infant day care centre was added to the kindergarten "Bambi" in Vrbovsko and a recycling yard was built. In late 2021, a new water tank Senjsko II was installed ==Religion==