The written history of Dobrinjstina started "in 1100, the year of our Lord Jesus Christ, in Dobrine church of St. Vitus" (cro. let od Hristova rojstva 1100 pred Dobrinem poli crikve svetoga Vida). As stated by Kirin Radonjin, the pisar od komuna Dobrina (eng. scribe of Dobrinj commune), on that day and in that year, a small church of St. Vitus was consecrated as a prebend of Dragoslav the Great. To this day, the historians failed to reveal who this Dragoslav was and why he was called "the Great". Nevertheless, they all agree that he was possibly a prosperous man of noble blood, and some even link him with the Krk princely line of Frankopans. The document which, according to the dictation of the mentioned Dragoslav in Old Croatian language and Glagolitic alphabet, was written down by the municipal scribe Kirin, was the first written document on the history of Dobrinjstina. Since the Listina slavnog Dragoslava (eng. Charter of Dragoslav the Great) mentions the komun (eng. commune, municipality), pisar od komuna (eng. scribe of the commune), crikva sv. Stipana (church of St. Stephen), plovan (parish priest), etc., it is obvious that Dobrinj was already organized as an administrative and ecclesiastic center. Although the Charter of Dragoslav the Great was not preserved in the original but in transcript, this does not challenge its value, because it is one of the oldest and most significant documents from the Croatian Glagolitic inheritance.

Although the Listina Charter is the only written official proof of the existence of Dobrinj, the trails of life in Dobrinjstina date all the way back to the pre-Illyrian times, for which there are evidence in archeological discoveries on numerous localities, and toponyms, i.e. the names of the inhabited and uninhabited places in Dobrinjstina. Although its official name is Dobrinj, among the local population the name Grad, meaning simply "the Town", became widely adopted; therefore in Dobrinj you will not hear that you are in Dobrinj, but that you are Gradi, meaning that you are "in Town".

Dobrinj was one of the Frankopan castles, and therefore it had specific appearance; each castle had its defensive walls, and in Dobrinj this function was performed by houses, which were built close to one another. This appearance was largely preserved in the so called Dolinji Grad (eng. Lower Town), i.e. in the older part of Dobrinj

The church of St. Stephen, which was mentioned as early as in Dragoslav's Charter, is one of the oldest religious-cultural monuments of Dobrinjstina. Besides this church, Dobrinj has another one, which is devoted to the Holy Trinity, but since it holds the sculpture of St. Anthony of Padova, the locals also call it crikva svetoga Antona (eng. the church of St. Anthony). This church holds an interesting altar painting illustrating hell, purgatory and heaven. During the last few years the church was turned into an exhibition gallery hall, especially during the summer months.

In the past, Dobrinj used to have many churches, among them the church of St. Ambrose, which most probably stood between the church-gallery and today's vicarage. Near the church there was also a cemetery, which was actually located on the place of the present-day park, or, as natives call it, the jardin.

An interesting destiny befell the Dobrinj belfry. Built in 16th century, it was struck and wrecked by thunders several times. Once it was almost completely leveled by a fascist detonation, only to be struck by a powerful thunderbolt in the 1980s. All this is attributed to the ancient legend according to which the belfry was prophesied during its construction to the ill-fated destiny...

Apart from the church of St. Stephen and recently the far-famed church-gallery of St. Anthony, one of the most significant sacral structures of Dobrinjstina is a small church of St. Vitus located in Sveti Vid, the village called after St. Vitus, one kilometer distant from Dobrinj. It was built by Dragoslav the Great, so that the Dragoslav's Charter, the so called Listina, made this early-Romanic small church known in wider Slavic-Glagolitic circles.

Although it is one of the smallest in Dobrinjstina, the church of St. Clement in Klimno, which dates from 1480, contains a valuable artistic detail - gold-plated altarpiece depicting the scenes from the saints lives, which belongs to the protected cultural monuments. It should be pointed out here that the church of St. Clement in Klimno is the only church in the entire Krk bishopric devoted to this bishop-saint.