Gospić, Lika-Senj County, Croatia

🇭🇷 Gospić is a town in the mountainous and sparsely populated region of Lika, Croatia. It is the administrative centre of Lika-Senj County. Gospić is located near the Lika River in the middle of a karst field (Ličko Polje).

Gospić is the third smallest seat of a county government in Croatia. Its status as the county capital helped to spur some development in it, but the town as well as the entire region have suffered a constant decrease in population over the last several decades. Scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla was born in the nearby village of Smiljan and grew up in Gospić.

Municipality • Aleksinica; • Barlete; • Bilaj; • Brezik ; • Brušane; • Budak; • Bužim; • Debelo Brdo I; • Debelo Brdo II; • Divoselo; • Donje Pazarište; • Drenovac Radučki; • Gospić; • Kalinovača; • Kaniža Gospićka; • Klanac; • Kruščica; • Kruškovac; • Kukljić; • Lički Čitluk; • Lički Novi; • Lički Osik; • Lički Ribnik; • Mala Plana; • Medak; • Mogorić; • Mušaluk; • Novoselo Bilajsko; • Novoselo Trnovačko; • Ornice; • Ostrvica; • Oteš; • Pavlovac Vrebački; • Počitelj; • Podastrana; • Podoštra; • Popovača Pazariška; • Rastoka; • Rizvanuša; • Smiljan; • Smiljansko Polje; • Široka Kula; • Trnovac; • Vaganac; • Velika Plana; • Veliki Žitnik ; • Vranovine; • Vrebac; • Zavođe; • Žabica.

History The first organised inhabitation of the area was recorded in 1263 as Kaseg or Kasezi. The name Gospić is first mentioned in 1604, which likely originates from the Croatian word for "lady" (gospa) or another archaic form, gospava. It was ruled by Ottoman Empire as part of Sanjak of Lika initially in Rumeli Eyalet (1528–1580), later in Bosnia Eyalet (1580–1686).

Today's town was built around two Ottoman forts (the towers of Aga Senković and of Aga Alić). The Turkish incursion was repelled by the end of the 17th century and Gospić became an administrative centre of the Lika region within the Military Frontier.

Until 1918, Gospić (named GOSPICH before 1850) was part of the Austrian monarchy (Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia after the compromise of 1867), in the Croatian Military Frontier, Likaner Regiment N° I. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Gospić was part of the Lika-Krbava County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.

During the Genocide of Serbs by the Ustaše in WWII, the district of Gospić experienced the first large-scale massacres which occurred in the Lika region, as some 3,000 Serb civilians were killed between late July and early August 1941. A concentration camp was established in Gospić in which (together with other camps that belonged to the same complex) the Ustaše might have killed between 24,000-42,000 people, most of them being Serbs and Jews, but some of the prisoners were also Croatian.

In the 1990s, during the course of the Croatian War of Independence, Gospić suffered greatly during the Battle of Gospić. The town was held by Croatian government forces throughout the war, while the rebel Serb forces of the Republic of Serbian Krajina occupied positions directly to the east and often bombarded the town from there. In February 1992, a statue of the Serb scientist Nikola Tesla in downtown Gospić was destroyed in an explosion. The perpetrators were never apprehended. The town was the site of the Gospić massacre, where between 100-120 predominantly Serb civilians were killed by Croatian military units. Control of the area finally devolved to the Croatian government with the success of Operation Storm in August 1995.

Gospic is also the site of one of the regional branches of the Croatian State Archives, the Državni arhiv Gospić, at Kaniška 17. It was founded 30 September 1999 and officially opened 1 September 2000 in a renovated building and now houses historical documents of relevance to the Lika-Senj region which were formerly housed in the Regional Archive at Karlovac. In 2013, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanović urged the town's authorities to allow for a replica of the Tesla statue that had been destroyed in 1992 to be reinstated. The mayor of Gospić, Nikola Kolić, refused to give his approval for such a move and instead vowed to erect a statue of wartime Croatian President Franjo Tuđman on the spot where the Tesla statue had once stood.

Administrative division Lika-Senj County is administratively subdivided into 12 units of local government: • Town of Gospić (county seat) • Town of Novalja • Town of Otočac • Town of Senj • Municipality of Brinje • Municipality of Donji Lapac • Municipality of Karlobag • Municipality of Lovinac • Municipality of Perušić • Municipality of Plitvička Jezera (Plitvice Lakes) • Municipality of Udbina • Municipality of Vrhovine.