It is considered that during the Bronze Age, a Liburnian hillfort existed on the site of today's castle.

[2] By the late 1282, Juraj Gusić Kurjaković, count of Krbava erected new fortifications and had the castle thoroughly reinforced.

[2] During the feudal power struggles of late 14th century called "The anti-court movement", in 1386 the Hungarian-Croatian sovereign Mary and her mother Elizabeth of Bosnia, were imprisoned in the castle.

[5] During the Cretan war, the Ottoman Empire briefly managed to capture the Novigrad Castle, only to be reclaimed again by the Venetians in 1647.

[4] During the Croatian War of Independence, the wider area of Novigrad was fiercely contested during Operation Maslenica in January and February 1993.