Kingdom of Hungary stamp cancelled in 1896Soldiers from the 79th Infantry Regiment (K.u.K. Otočaner Infaterie-regiment Graf Jellačić), known as the “Jelačićevci” marching through Gospić in 1914.
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.
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, a section of the Habsburg monarchy organized as defense against the Ottomans. Before 1850, there are references to the town as Gospich in German. Since this time, there's been a significant population of ethnic Serbs in the Gospić region.
Scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, of Serb descent, was born in the nearby village of Smiljan and grew up in Gospić between 1862 and 1870, when he moved to Karlovac. He again lived in Smiljan between 1873 and 1879, when he briefly returned to Gospić until 1880 when he went to Graz.
In the 19th century, Gospić was the headquarters of Military Frontier "Likaner Regiment" N° I.[3] Following the compromise of 1867, it became part of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Gospić was part of the Lika-Krbava County.
During the Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia 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.[4] 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.[5][6]
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 late 1991, the town was the site of the Gospić massacre, where between 100-120 predominantly Serb civilians were killed by Croatian military units.[7] In February 1992, a statue of Nikola Tesla in downtown Gospić was destroyed in an explosion. The perpetrators were never apprehended.[8] Control of the area finally devolved to the Croatian government with the success of Operation Storm in August 1995.[7]
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.
Gospić 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 MinisterZoran 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 at the time, Milan 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.[8] In 2021, under mayor Karlo Starčević, the town renamed a square after Tesla, and the Croatian Ministry of Culture sponsored a new statue on the square, a replica of the Frano Kršinić original.[9]
Gospić has a humid continental climate, Dfb by Köppen climate classification, with mean temperatures varying from −0.9 °C (30.4 °F) in January to 18.1 °C (64.6 °F) in July. Being situated higher than 500 metres (1,640 ft) above sea level, the area experiences high diurnal ranges, especially in summer, and frost has been recorded in every month except for July. The record low and high temperatures are −33.5 °C (−28.3 °F) and 38.7 °C (101.7 °F), respectively. Gospić is also quite a rainy city, with a slight summer minimum, but it experiences plentiful precipitation all year long, with the maximum being in autumn. During winter, Gospić can get strong blizzards, with on average 5.1 days a year when more than 50 cm (20 in) falls, and 16.1 days when more than 30 cm (12 in) falls. Its record snow cover was 285 cm (112.2 in), and it was measured in February 1916.
Climate data for Gospić (1971–2000, extremes 1872–2015)
Directly elected minority councils and representatives are tasked with consulting tasks for the local or regional authorities in which they are advocating for minority rights and interests, integration into public life and participation in the management of local affairs.[16] At the 2023 Croatian national minorities councils and representatives electionsSerbs of Croatia fulfilled legal requirements to elect 15 members minority council of the Town of Gospić with only 13 members being elected in the end.[17]
^"Gospić Climate Normals"(PDF). Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service. Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
