Ličko Petrovo Selo is a village in

Lika Lika () is a traditional region of Croatia proper, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. It is located near the

Plitvice Lakes Plitvice or Plitvička jezera can refer to: * Plitvice Lakes National Park, the largest and oldest national park in Croatia * Plitvička Jezera, a municipality of Lika-Senj County, Croatia See also * Plitvica (disambiguation) Plitvica refers to ...

. It is connected by the D1 highway. East of the village, the D217 ends at the Ličko Petrovo Selo border crossing with

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and ...

(continuing to

Izačić Izačić (Serbian Cyrillic: Изачић) is a village of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Izacic is a part of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It shares a border with Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat ...

and on to

Bihać Bihać ( cyrl, Бихаћ) is a city and the administrative centre of Una-Sana Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the banks of river Una in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovi ...

). Founded in 1792, Ličko Petrovo Selo was historically a majority

Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of ...

community and has an Orthodox church. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, as part of the genocide of ethnic Serbs, in summer 1941 the Croatian

Ustaše The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movem ...

regime killed about 890 inhabitants of Ličko Petrovo Selo and the nearby village of Melinovac, throwing their bodies into a pit.Đuro Zatezalo, ''"Radio sam svoj seljački i kovački posao": svjedočanstva genocida'', Zagreb: SKD Prosvijeta, 2005, , p. 304. The village was largely destroyed.Debbie Rolls
"In Croatia, a hotel trying to heal war wounds"
''BBC Travel'', 21 October 2022. Ličko Petrovo Selo was rebuilt in the 1970s. Factories and

Željava Air Base Željava Air Base, situated on the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Plješevica mountain, near the city of Bihać, Bosnia, was the largest underground airport and military air base in Yugoslavia, and one of the largest ...

were nearby, as well as the Plitvice Lakes national park, which opened in 1949. During the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...

of the 1990s, it was within the breakaway

Republic of Serbian Krajina The Republic of Serbian Krajina or Serb Republic of Krajina ( sh, Република Српска Крајина, italics=no / or РСК / ''RSK'', ), known as the Serbian Krajina ( / ) or simply Krajina, was a self-proclaimed Serb proto-state, ...

and again was extensively destroyed. Most residents fled, and in the 2020s the village has a population of a few hundred, mostly elderly, with some houses being second homes and many yet to be repaired. There is a post office and a 58-room hotel, opened in 2019 on the site of the school.

Notable people

* Josef Philipp Vukassovich

References

Populated places in Lika-Senj County {{LikaSenj-geo-stub