The Vitezić Family Library
The Vitezić Family Library contains a valuable legacy from two brothers from Vrbnik: Bishop Ivan Josip Vitezić of Krk and Dinko Vitezić, a doctor of law and a representative in the Vienna parliament.
The library was established by brother Dinko in 1898 "for the benefit of the people of Vrbnik for the dissemination of useful knowledge," while in 1877, brother Ivan Josip bequeathed all his books and proposed its founding.
Since there was no adequate space, construction began on the Vitezić Home, which was opened in 1901 at the site of today’s "Vrbnik Above the Sea" hotel.
In addition to the library, it included a Croatian reading room, a hall for events and meetings, a nursery, a children's playground, an inn, and a rest house. The library itself was opened to the public in 1910. The Vitezić Home was bombed in 1945, but fortunately, most of the library materials were saved. In 1973, the Vitezić Family Library was declared a cultural good.
The library contains books from various fields of human activity in multiple foreign languages.
The most valuable collections are the collection of unique items and the rare book collection. The most notable examples from the library include: the Atlas by Johann David Köhler printed in 1718, one of only two copies preserved in the world, the other being held in Cambridge; Ilyricum Sacrum by Daniello Farlatti; the Protestant New Testament in Croatian printed in Glagolitic script in 1562; and the Book of Father Savat – a Glagolitic manuscript containing a collection of prayers by Gašpar Vnučić from 1568. Valuable Glagolitic manuscripts and printed books are now kept in the parish office, while Petris’s collection, the Vrbnik Statute, and Greblo's Kvarezimal are housed in the University Library in Zagreb.
Historians find the correspondence between Dinko Vitezić and Josip Juraj Strossmayer particularly interesting and valuable, as well as various issues of the magazines Naša sloga, Narodni list, and Pučki prijatelj. The library once had many more items, but according to the latest report from 2012, it currently holds 3,877 titles and 6,273 volumes, has an online catalog, and some valuable books have been digitized.