In 1390 King Sigismund of Luxembourg handed Ružomberok, the market town a few kilometres down the valley, to the Likava estate. For the town this was bad news, and Slovak accounts say plainly that its growth stalled from that moment: a royal town answers to the king and keeps its own privileges, an estate town answers to the castle. For the castle it was the making of it — Likava was now not just a watch-post but the head of a large landed property, with villages, forests, tolls and courts under it. The log village of Vlkolínec, high on the shelf of the Veľká Fatra above the town, first appears in the records in the same century as part of that estate.V roku 1390 dal kráľ Žigmund Luxemburský Ružomberok, mestečko pár kilometrov nižšie v doline, likavskému panstvu. Pre mesto to bola zlá správa a slovenské pramene to hovoria priamo: od tej chvíle sa jeho rozvoj zastavil. Kráľovské mesto sa zodpovedá kráľovi a drží si vlastné výsady, poddanské mesto sa zodpovedá hradu. Pre hrad to naopak znamenalo všetko — Likava už nebola len strážnym bodom nad cestou, ale hlavou veľkého panstva s dedinami, lesmi, mýtami a súdmi. Aj Vlkolínec, dedina vysoko na terase Veľkej Fatry nad mestom, sa v písomnostiach prvý raz objavuje v tom istom storočí — práve ako súčasť tohto panstva.
