Visit Croatia - About the Country

Art
Ivan Mestrovic
Mestrovic is one of Croatia's best-known sculptors. Born in 1883 in a village in present-day Slavonia, he moved to Split to work as an apprentice in a stone cutter's workshop before going to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna at the age of 18. Moving on to Paris, his work started to attract attention from others in the art world at the time. Moving back to Croatia in the 1920s, he was imprisoned for three months during World War II by the then fascist government, though was released following the intervention of the Vatican. Escaping to Europe, Mestrovic moved to the United States after World War II to teach at Syrcacuse University. Gaining American citizenship in 1954, Mestrovic remained in the U.S. for the remainder of his life and died there in 1962.

Mestrovic's most famous works include the statue of Gregory of Nin in Split; a statue of Croatian bishop and politician Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Zagreb; statues of inventor Nikola Tesla in Zagreb, Belgrade and at Niagra Falls; and History of the Croats statue, a copy of which stands in front of Zagreb University. There is also a Mestrovic Gallery in Split, which contains a number of his works.

Oscar Nemon
Another famous Croatian sculptor, Nemon was born in Osijek in 1906. Also moving to Vienna to study, he then spent a large part of the 1920s and most of the 1930s in Brussels, before escaping to England just prior to World War II. Known as the "sculptor of the nation's leaders", Nemon produced a number of sculptures of high profile figures, including members of the British Royal family (such as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh); Viscount Montgomery; and former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan, Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill. The statue of Montgomery can be seen outside the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall, London, whilst Winston Churchill's is situated in the House of Commons. (The foot of the statue is often rubbed by MPs for luck.)

Oscar Nemon website

Science
Nikola Tesla
Inventor and electrical engineer Tesla, whose work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries did much for the development of electricty and wireless devices and communication (i.e. radio) amongst many other (sometimes overlooked) achievements. He was born near the town of Gospic in present-day Croatia, though his ethnicity is Serbian (and he later moved to the U.S. and took American citizenship). He is celebrated with momuments, statues and museums in both Croatia and Serbia (the airport in Belgrade is named Nikola Tesla Airport), as well as in the United States. The unit tesla, used to measure magnetic fields, is named after the inventor.

Ruder Boskovic was an 18th century astronomer and physicist from Ragusa, present day Dubrovnik.

Music
Ivo Pogorelic, born in 1958, is a famous concert pianist who has perfomed around the world with many profilic orchestras.

Krist Novoselic of Nirvana and Tomislav (Tomo) Milicevic of 30 Seconds To Mars are both of Croatian parentage.

Literature
Ivo Andric
Andric (1892 - 1975) was born in Bosnia to a Bosnian Croat family. He was a civil servant and diplomat as well as an author, holiding various posts including as Ambassdor to Germany. His most famous work is The Bridge on the Drina, which was published in 1945.

Slavenka Drakulic
Born in Rijeka in 1959, Drakulic is a journalist and writer who has written a number of fiction and non-fiction books about her home region and the recent war, including As If I Am Not There, Balkan Express, Cafe Europa, and They Would Never Hurt A Fly. She now resides in Sweden.

Ivan Gundelic was a 17th century poet from Dubrovnik, with the poems Osman and Tears of the Prodigal Son his most famous work.

Film
Goran Visnjic
One of the most well-known Croatian faces currently in the world is actor Goran Visnjic, best known for his role as Dr Luka Kovac in TV series ER, which he played from 1999 to 2008. The character of Dr Kovac was, of course, also Croatian with the background that he was a doctor from Vukovar whose family were killed during the war in the 1990s. Moving to the U.S. for a fresh start, he became joined the hospital in Chicago were ER was based. During his time as Dr Kovac, there were often or references flashbacks to his earlier life in Croatia and Visnjic even spoke Croatian on several occasions in the show. (Not often you hear the language in such a big hit TV series!)

Visnjic first came to prominence starring in Hamlet at the Dubrovnik Film Festival from 1994 to 2000. He has also been in a number of films, such as Practical Magic, Welcome to Sarajevo, and Elektra.

Rade Serbedzija
A well-known actor in Yugoslavia in the 1970s and 1980s, Serbedzija began his career whilst studying at the Academy of Dramatic Arts at the University of Zagreb. He started appearing in Hollywood films in the late 1990s, and has built up quite a career - in fact, he's one of those actors who keeps popping up in all sorts of movies unexpectedly, normally playing some kind of shady character or "foreign" (or Eastern European) villian.

His film and TV credits include Mission Impossible II, Batman Begins, CSI: Miami and 24. He is also due to have a small part in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Branko Lustig
A film producer, Lustig is a double-Academy Award winner, with Oscars for Best Picture for Schindler's List in 1994 and Gladiator in 2001.

Others
Actors who are known to be of Croatian ancestry include Eric Bana (who's full name is Eric Banadinovic) and John Malkovich.

Television
Adrian Chiles
British TV presenter Adrian Chiles - who has popped up on many BBC TV shows over the years, but currently presents The One Show and Match of the Day 2 - is half Croatian, and his mother is from Zagreb. Here's an article from 2007 explaining his split loyalties when Croatia and England are involved in football matches!
The Guardian: I was the only one who had a game of two halves (25th November 2007)

Other
Grgich Hills Estate winery in Napa Valley, California was established by Mike (Miljenko) Grgich who was born in Dalmatia and learnt much of his craft from his father, who had a vineyard. He fled then-Yugoslavia in the 1950s and settled in California in 1958.

Nick Nobilo, who founded New Zealand wine company Nobilo Wines, was born on the island of Korcula.

Anthony (Ante) Maglica, born in 1930, is the inventor of the Maglite torches and flashlights. Although he was born in New York, his family returned to the island of Zlarin (a small island near Sibenik) which is where he grew up. He returned to the U.S. in 1950 and set up his business (Mag Instrument Inc) in 1975.

Split-born George Mateljan, who now resides in the U.S., is a renowned food expert and author of a number of popular cookery books, including The World's Heathiest Foods. Read up on his advice on his fascinating website The World's Healthiest Foods.

Famous Venetian explorer Marco Polo (1254 - 1324) was thought to have been born on the island of Korcula (though there is little concrete proof to support this - or to show he was actually born), which was part of the Venetian Empire at that time. He is celebrated on the island, and you can see his supposed house of birth there.

The Tadich Grill restaurant in San Francisco is thought to be the oldest restaurant in California, having opened in 1849. It is still a fabulous seafood restaurant to this day - if you are ever in the city, make sure you pay it a visit!