Nikola Tesla, a legacy of the Albanian nation

Nikola Tesla dressed in Albanian traditional clothing, 1880

By Saimir LOLJA

  By name, Nikola Tesla was not a Serbian. His family was from Sanxhak inhabited by Albanians even today. That time Sanxhak was a region of Bosnia, which itself was part of the Ottoman Empire. His father was illiterate and one day became a Christian orthodox priest named Milutin. His mother’s name was Gjuka, an Albanian name. 

Due to the Serbian expulsion against Albanians especially in the mid-19th century, his family relocated to the village of Smiljan in western Croatia of today. That time Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Men in North Albanian folk costume

Nikola Tesla was born there on July 10, 1856. The Albanian tongue was not publicly in use and the Albanian schools were prohibited in the 19th century. Therefore, Nikola Tesla showed to know the Serbian and German languages taught in public schools. His family had preserved the Albanian folk costume as a dear and sincere legacy of their origin.

A picture that shows Orthodox Christian Albanians, 1907, from Galica. The postcard is sent from Thessaloniki.

The costume that Nikola Tesla dressed is typical of Northern Albania or Dardania. He dressed that costume before he left for Prague in 1880, then to Budapest and Paris, and arriving in New York in 1884.

Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943, in New York, USA.