In 1247 Berthold, Patriarch of Aquileia granted the area around Ribnica within the imperial March of Carniola to the Carinthian counts of Ortenburg.

When the counts received further estates on the wooded plateau down to Kostel on the Kolpa River in 1336 from Patriarch Bertram, they called for German-speaking settlers from Carinthia and Tyrol.

The municipality was the site of the Kočevski Rog massacre in May 1945, part of the massive Bleiburg repatriations.

The municipality remains sparsely populated, and was the site of several secret military installations in Yugoslav times.

[3] The association with the colors blue and white dates to the 1470s, when Emperor Frederick III approved the design of the coat of arms, along with civic rights, on 19 April 1471.