The Nikola Tesla Memorial Center is a cultural-historical site and museum located in Smiljan, Croatia, located at the birthplace of Nikola Tesla, one of the world's foremost engineers and inventors. It is dedicated to Tesla, who was born in 1856 in his Serb parents house in Smiljan, then part of the Croatian Military Frontier within the Habsburg monarchy. The young engineer later left his homeland to work in America. The Lika Museum in nearby Gospić administers the site.
History
The Memorial Center was opened to the public on the 150th anniversary of Tesla's birthday, 10 July 2006, by the President of the Republic of Croatia.[2] The original memorial site was first established as a museum in 1956, but it was damaged during the Croatian War of Independence when a projectile fell on the commercial building next to Nikola Tesla's house. The fire was eventually put out by the Croatian Army who deposited furniture and other objects it saved in the Museum of Lika.[3] The Croatian authorities restored the complex and reopened it in a 2006 ceremony, with the highest dignitaries of Croatia and Serbia attending.[4] After the war it was renovated, improved, equipped and opened as Memorial Center in 2006.
Architecture and exhibits
On its surface area of 1.37 square kilometres, the memorial complex contains various components: museum in the birth house[5] of Nikola Tesla (where the details of his life are shown in a permanent exhibition of artifacts, documents, photographs and audiovisual material), the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Peter and Paul, an old agricultural building, village cemetery, Tesla's testing station, stone monuments, benches and river banks designed by architect Zdenko Kolacio, metal statue of Nikola Tesla made by sculptor Mile Blažević, open-air auditorium, prototypes of some Tesla's inventions[6] (induction motor, Tesla's turbine, rotating magnetic field, Tesla coil), multimedia center etc.
Various scientific and educational activities or presentations are occasionally organized in the Memorial Center. Over the past years the number of visitors coming to the site has been steadily growing. 41,000 tourists from many countries from all over the world visited the center in 2016.[7] In 2018 this number increased to over 44,000 people.
^"Lika napokon otkrila Teslu" [Lika finally discovers Tesla]. Jutarnji list (in Croatian). 2006-07-08. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2011-08-11. Vesna Bunčić, ravnateljica Muzeja Like u kojem se čuvaju namještaj i predmeti iz Tesline rodne kuće. Kada je u svibnju 1992. jedan projektil pao na gospodarski objekt tik uz kuću, izbio je požar u kojem je ta drvena zgradica u potpunosti izgorjela. No, požar je zahvatio i dio krova Tesline rodne kuće. – Pripadnici HV-a ugasili su požar, a onda su namještaj i svi predmeti deponirani u Muzeju Like. Od 2000. godine Muzej Like krenuo je u sanaciju krova, dok je gospodarski objekt ponovno sagrađen 2003. godine – pojasnila je Vesna Bunčić. U Muzeju su, uz namještaj, i porculanski predmeti te 133 knjige iz biblioteke Teslina oca Milutina. Namještaj će tu i ostati jer se u obnovljenoj Teslinoj kući sada priprema drukčiji postav.
