The Senj and Vinodol coast

The Vinodol Statute was drawn up in 1288 at Novi (Novigrad) for the Frankopan counts of Krk, who made Novi the centre of Vinodol. Vinodol was split in 1577: the north around Bakar went to the Zrinski and the south around Bribir stayed Frankopan; Novi returned to the Frankopan line in 1580. Senj passed from the Templars to the Frankopans in 1269-71, was taken by Matthias Corvinus's forces in 1469 and became the seat of the Senj captaincy, and was held by the Uskoks from 1537 to 1618.

After the Zrinski-Frankopan conspiracy (executions 30 April 1671) their estates were confiscated; Bakar passed to the Court Chamber. Senj's Primorska krajina was abolished in 1746 and Senj went to the Otočac regiment, so its records follow the Military Frontier, not a county. The coast's status moved repeatedly and the sources disagree on the dates: Austrian Littoral from 1749 (Bakar) or 1754 (Vinodol), Bakar back to Croatia in 1777 and a free royal city in 1779, the Vinodol coast under Hungarian administration at Rijeka in 1786. The Kotor-Crikvenica parish register was kept 1735-1793.

The Treaty of Schönbrunn (14 October 1809) gave France the Croatian lands south-west of the Sava, which became the Illyrian Provinces; Senj and Vinodol are described as under French rule 1809-1813, which ruined Bakar's maritime trade. Austrian forces retook the region in 1813.

Rijeka and Civil Croatia were restored to the Kingdom of Croatia in 1822; Bakar was placed under the ban that year, and Vinodol was attached to the Rijeka governorate, with Croatian state authority there dated to 1848 after Jelačić took charge of Rijeka. Senj stayed in the Otočac regiment of the Military Frontier. Records of this period are largely in Latin, German and Italian, and German, Hungarian and Croatian in the second half of the century.

The 1868 Croatian-Hungarian Settlement created the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. Senj came out of the Military Frontier in 1871 (1881 in some sources, when the Frontier was dissolved as a whole) and was placed in Lika-Krbava county. The 1886 county reform put Crikvenica, Bakar and Novi in Modruš-Rijeka county (seat Ogulin). Fiume itself was a separate Hungarian corpus separatum.

The Treaty of Rapallo (12 November 1920) left Sušak with the Kingdom across the Rječina from the Free State of Fiume, and Fiume went to Italy in 1924; Bakar and the coast east of the river stayed Yugoslav. The coast was in the Primorje-Krajina oblast (seat Karlovac) from 1922, the Sava Banovina 1929-31 and the Banovina of Croatia from 1939 (dated by source).

By the Treaties of Rome (18 May 1941) Italy annexed Sušak and Bakar to the Province of Fiume (Bakar as Buccari). The NDH formed the great county of Podgorje, seated at Senj, although Italy effectively controlled the area; Italian forces took over civil and military administration of the coastal Zone II on 7 September 1941. After the 1943 Italian armistice German forces occupied the Province of Fiume, and Partisans took control of Senj in 1943.

Universal civil registration by civil authorities began in Croatia in May 1946, so earlier vital records are the Church registers; registers over 100 years old were passed to archives from 1957. Sušak and Rijeka merged in 1948, and Bakar later became part of Rijeka municipality. The Senj-Modruš diocese merged into the Rijeka archdiocese in 1969.

The Državni arhiv u Rijeci covers Primorje-Gorski Kotar county and the city of Senj, although Senj lies in Lika-Senj county; Bakar, Crikvenica, Kraljevica, Novi Vinodolski, Senj and Vinodol municipality are among its listed record creators. Bakar and Kostrena became separate municipalities in 1992. Senj's diocese is Gospić-Senj since 2000; many registers remain with the parishes and the Archdiocese of Rijeka.