Founded in 1792, Ličko Petrovo Selo was historically a majority Serb community and has an Orthodox church. During World War II, as part of the genocide of ethnic Serbs, in summer 1941 the Croatian Ustaše regime killed about 890 inhabitants of Ličko Petrovo Selo and the nearby village of Melinovac, throwing their bodies into a pit.[3] The village was largely destroyed.[4]
Ličko Petrovo Selo was rebuilt in the 1970s. Factories and Željava Air Base were nearby, as well as the Plitvice Lakes national park, which opened in 1949.[4] During the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, it was within the breakaway Republic of Serbian Krajina 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.[4]
