His journey
1856
Smiljan
Born in Smiljan
Nikola Tesla is born in the parish house in Smiljan, son of the Orthodox priest Milutin Tesla and Đuka Mandić.
1856 · 1943
Nikola Tesla
Born in Smiljan, in Croatia's Lika, he lit up the twentieth century. This is our tribute: his life, his inventions, and the Zagreb museum that bears his name, room by room.
Tesla tamed lightning.
In 1899, in Colorado Springs, he made lightning bolts over forty metres long, according to his notes. Here he draws them down from the storm and sends them back. Tap the sky and he'll throw one there.
Hold it down to charge; let go and he throws.
We took a 360 camera to the museum and covered every corner.
Zagreb's Technical Museum has carried Tesla's name since 2015. We walked all of it with a tripod: every room, every display case, and the great coil in the Cabinet where his inventions still come alive.
At each spot we shot twice, with the photographer standing on a different side of the camera each time, then merged the two so only the museum remains. Then we developed every photo by hand, in the light of its own room.
Martín Silva Molina and The Mariscal, Zagreb, October 2026
- places
- 318
- 360 shots
- 958
- of walking
- 2 h 25
- rooms
- 16
- pieces that light up
- 696
From Smiljan to New York, and back home.
Eighty-six years on the map: the Lika of his childhood, Graz, Budapest and the idea of a rotating field, Paris, New York, Colorado Springs, Wardenclyffe.
The Nikola Tesla Cabinet
Where his inventions still come alive.
The museum's most beloved room: the stands, the great coil in its copper cage, the rotating field motors and the corridor of his life.
Live demonstration: Tuesday to Friday at 3:30 pm, Saturday and Sunday at 11:30 am.
Go on, touch them. They work like they did then.
Switch on the phases of the rotating magnetic field, bring the lamp close to the coil, steer the 1898 radio-controlled boat.
Every room. Every corner.
The 1949 timber pavilion from end to end: transport, energy, astronautics, the planetarium, firefighting, farming and the Tesla Cabinet.
Savska cesta 184 places
The entrance1 places
The central hall2 places
The Nikola Tesla Cabinet12 places
Transport50 places
Aero engines8 places
Energy transformation53 places
Firefighting22 places
Mining, geology and oil26 places
The gallery8 places
Astronautics and planetarium15 places
Open doors28 places
Exhibitions30 places
Renewable energy33 places
Agriculture18 places
Apisarij5 places
Photos from his time.
Portraits, laboratories, patents and places. All public domain or freely licensed, each with its author.
Visit
Savska cesta 18, Zagreb.
From the globe to the museum door: how to get there from the station, the main square or the airport.
- Opening hours
- Tuesday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm, weekends 9 am to 1 pm
- Tesla demonstration
- 3:30 pm, and 11:30 am at weekends
- Tickets
- €7 (prices valid from 1 October 2026)
- Tram
- Lines 3, 9 and 12 stop at the door: Tehnički muzej
«I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success.»