Smiljan

Smiljan, a village in the hilly region of Lika is in the west of Croatia. It is located seven kilometers west of Gospic and 15 kilometers from the highway Zagreb- Split. The village has 446 inhabitants ( 2001).

Personalities

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), electrical engineer, was born here. In his birth house is a memorial. The Lika belonged to the time of his birth - under the Habsburg Franz Joseph I. - the Croatian Military Frontier which was directly subordinated to the Empire of Austria and was incorporated only in 1882 in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia.