Smiljan () is a village in the mountainous region of Western Lika in Croatia. It is located northwest of Gospić, and fifteen kilometers from the Zagreb-Split highway; its population is 418 (2011). Smiljan is the birthplace of inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla. Geography It consists of eighteen scattered hamlets (Baćinac, Bogdanić, Čovini, Debelo Brdo, Dražica, Kolakovica, Kovačevići, Ljutača, Milkovića Varoš, Miljača, Miškulin Brdo, Podkrčmar, Rasovača, Rosulje, Smiljan, Smiljansko Polje, Vaganac). Smiljan resort is located in the central part of the Velebit-Lika plain, on the western edge of the field at the foot of the hill Krčmar. It consists of twelve villages which makes the spatial and functional unit. In the surroundings are Hill-forts Bogdanić, Smiljan and Krčmar, prehistoric tombs, the churches of St. Anastasia, St. Mark and St. Vitus. It got its name from the fort Smiljan which ruins are located at hill Vekavac. History The oldest traces of settlement on the ground of Smiljan are dating from the Middle and Late Bronze Age. On the hillfort Miljac once was situated necropolis, and were found numerous remains of Iapodian culture. The origin of the name Smiljan is not fully certain. It is commonly believed to be derived from smilje, the name for the Helichrysum plant. However, Croatian linguist Petar Šimunović believed Smiljan is patronymic in origin. Another hypothesis focuses on milja, Croatian for "mile", present in other toponyms such as Miljača hill, which suggests a connection with a nearby merchant road. The area of Smiljan was controlled by the Ottoman Empire between 1527–1686, after which the Ottoman rule was expelled from those parts by counts Jerko Rukavina and Dujam Kovačević. Until that time the Ottoman aghas, Rizvan and Zenković, from Novi near Gospić had estates in Smiljan, Bužim and Trnovac. After the defeat of the Ottomans in Lika, most of the Bunjevci (Roman Catholic Vlachs who spoke Western Herzegovinian subdialect of Neo-Shtokavian with Ikavian accent) migrated to Lika, including Smiljan between 1683–87. A 1700 church register listed 17 Serbian Orthodox families in the village, who had settled during the Great Turkish War. Villages and hamlets in Lika and Krbava were divided according to religious confession, Serbian Orthodox minority lived in the hamlets of Selište, Ljutača and Bogdanić at that time. In 1708 the Roman Catholic parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was founded. There is a small chapel, Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. The Serbian Orthodox church of