What is Croatia famous for?

You might have stumbled in here by accident or were curious what Croatia could be famous for. The beautiful beaches and great architecture being a popular guess. The notable things still not being everything that you may or may not know about this beautiful country.

What is Croatia famous for
Now many of you would be surprised about some of these but you actually use a couple of these in your everyday life. Like per-say the electrical socket you use to charge up your PC and various other electronics thanks to AC breakthroughs. All credit going to Nikola Tesla for that one.

The modern day sign of professionalism and business. The necktie originated from Croatian mercenaries that served the French back in the 17th century. The clothing accessory becoming a staple of business attire.

A Croatian by the name of Faust Vrančić. The first person to take Leonardo Da Vinci’s idea and incorporate it to stretch fabric over a wooden frame… I do wonder if he had the ba*cough*-courage to jump tho.

Croatia didn’t invent this but thanks to a genius anthropologist and police official Juan Vucetish. Juan pioneered the use of fingerprinting in Croatia along with making great improvements to the technique. Juan managed to identify a killer in 1892., Francisca Rojas. Who murdered her two children and cut her own throat trying to apply the blame to an outside person.

BOOM! That’s it, these destructive devices were created by Ivan Blaž Lupis (1813–75). Born in Croatia. Ivan suggested his device to Austrian technician comitee and was turned down, saying the product would be too expensive and unorthodox. He later established a contract with “Lupis”, a factory in Rijeka to mass manufacture the torpedo’s. Safe to say, torpedo’s have become one of the most used weaponry in Submarines.

It’s time to get down with the beat of the music because who here doesn’t like listening to it? Croatian programmer Tomislav Uzelac who developed the AMP is widely considered the first one to make a successful MP3 player.

Croatian inventor Slavoljub Penkala (1871–1922) from Polish origin patented many inventions which are still used today. But his notably most famous one would have to be the ballpoint pen. The ballpoint pen dispenses ink. Usually on a piece of paper using a small metal ball on the point of the pen. The pen becoming the most used writing instrument today.

Croatia made a lot more inventions and not just the ones listed above like for example Rice Chocolate(It’s delicious), Water cannon, Vertical axis wind turbine, Maglite flashlights to brighten your night and many more inventions that would be hard to name.

We talked about Croatia’s famous inventions and products but why not add a bit to it and talk about some of the great minds and famous people that are Croatian, whether originated or moved here from somewhere they are still Croatian in most people’s eyes.

Why not start off with the father of electricity and founder of everything awesome, Nikola Tesla!
Sure there will be a couple of Thomas Edison fans saying otherwise but we all know I’m right here. Nikola Tesla was a serbian-american born in a small town called “Smiljan” in Croatia and oh boy did he create some pretty nifty things in his lifetime.
Famous for making and discovering Alternating current, Tesla Coils, X-ray photography, Steam powered oscillating generator and many more inventions that haven’t seen the light of day and were only hinted and talked about by the man himself; like for example the so called “Death Beam” which could wipe out thousands of soldiers in one sweep, whilst people called it a “Death Beam”, Tesla himself believed it as a “Peace Beam”, which would foil enemy aircraft’s attacks.

Nikola Tesla was and is a genius every meaning of the word and an inspiration to many people but he wasn’t without his flaws. The man was often seen as being cynical and anti-social, preferring to live with a set schedule for eating exactly at 20:10 (8:10 p.m. for you Americans out there) alone and only have a specific waiter bring him his food; oh did I also mention he was kind of a germaphobe.

But moving on from the father of electricity we have… Faust Vrančić, the inventor of the parachute (So he’s the person responsible for inspiring skydiving and having your adrenalin junky friend drag you into falling out of a plane 😉 ). Faust was born in Šibenik and even as a youth he was interested in science. Faust soon moved to Venice, where he attended schools, and then to Padua to join the University.

But Faust wasn’t solely an inventor of the Parachute because in his notes he also inspired the creation of a wind turbine as stated in his book “Machinae Novae”. Which helped today’s civilization evolve the concept, making wind turbines one of the best environmentally friendly energy generating sources.

Now if we dive down to Roger Joseph Boscovich we are in for a treat. 🙂

Roger Joseph was a great Ragusan physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, diplomat, yeah you get the point, the man was smart. Roger produced a precursor of atomic theory and made many contributions to astronomy. Including one on how to determine the equator of a planet by three observations of the surface. Roger was born on 18th of May 1711 in Ragusa.

We talked shortly about some of the products that made up to become inventions like the tie. But that’s far from being the only product Croatia has up it’s sleeve. Some products even being used across the world, not just Croatia. 🙂

If you don’t have a sweet tooth like most I suggest you skip this one because these confectionery delights are delicious. Praline made out of a mix of hazelnuts, walnuts and other ingredients make it have a very specific and familiar taste. Made by Kraš, a Croatian food company which specializes in confectionery is the second largest Croatian exporter of food.

An original food condiment from Croatia which is a mixture primarily of salt with other flavour enhancers, various veggies and spices. Developed by a Bosnian Croat scientist Zlata Bartl and produced by the company Podravka, which is the number one exporter of Croatia. The condiment easily sold over nine-thousand of it’s packages worldwide (See what I did there) 😀

A brand of flashlight manufactured in the United States and invented by Anthony Maglica . Anthony Maglica although born in New York, Maglica grew up on the island of Zlarin on the coast of Croatia. The Maglite was and still is a rather sturdy flashlight that once used krypton and xenon light bulbs to light up the way and fight superman with, but later they switched to LED’s.

Croatia has many delicacies and products but you won’t be able to visit Croatia without at least hearing Pršut being mentioned once or twice by passionate locals claiming they know a person that makes the best one. Made out of the hind legs of a pig this delicacy is considered one of the most original products of Croatia.