A Brief History of the Memorial Center "Nikola Tesla" Smiljan

Tesla was born in a parochial family, in a house next to the Orthodox Church of St. Peter and Paul that was built in 1765. Experts of the Conservation Institute of the SR of Croatia restored the house in 1956 and it was opened as a Memorial Museum.           

In 1964, the Memorial Museum came under the management of the Museum of Lika in Gospić, which worked on the preservation of this cultural good for years. The whole memorial area was declared a monument of nature in 1976.

To commemorate the 130th anniversary of Tesla's birth, the birth house was restored with the help of the Parliament of the SR of Croatia and was given to the Museum of Lika in Gospić to use in 1986.

The memorial area of Nikola Tesla was registered as a cultural good in 2005 and entered into the Registry of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia.

At the proposal of the Croatian Government the President of Croatia declared 2006 the year of Nikola Tesla. The restored birth house, its new museum exhibition, the surroundings and the accompanying exterior monuments as well as the newly built facilities together comprise the present-day Memorial Center "Nikola Tesla"  Smiljan. It was opened on July 10th, 2006, on the 150th anniversary of Tesla's birth.