The Serbian Cultural Garden hosted an event to dedicate the busts of Vuk Karadzic and Nikola Tesla on June 7, 2015.
The bust of Nikola Tesla replaces an earlier bust of the famed inventor that was stolen last summer. Tesla was an inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. Nikola TeslaRev. Zivojin Jakovljevic
Rev. Zivojin Jakovljevic (Father Zivojin - St. Sava Church in Parma) and Hieromonk Platon (Father Platon, Monastery Marcha in Richfield) did the blessing at the Tesla statue.
Rev. Zivojin Jakovljevic and Hieromonk Platon bless the Tesla statue
The crowd then moved to the Karadzic bust for another blessing.
Vuk Stefanovic Karadžicc was a Serbian philologist and linguist who was the major reformer of the Serbian language and has been called the father of the study of Serbian folklore. He was also the author of the first Serbian dictionary.
Vuk Stefanovic Karadžic
Rev. Zivojin Jakovljevic and Hieromonk Platon bless the Karadzic statue
After the blessings, Alex Machaskee, President of the Serbian Cultural Garden in Cleveland Ohio, gave some history of the Garden from its beginning as part of the Slovenian then Yugoslav Garden until a separate Serbian Garden was created.
Alex Machaskee and Rev. Zivojin Jakovljevic
Alex then told the story of how the bust of Vuk Stefanovic Karadžic got to Cleveland in the Serbian Cultural Garden.
He then announced that the next bust would be of Mileva Maric who was the wife of Albert Einstein.
In the gathering in the center of the Garden near the St Sava icon, Alex Machaskee introduced some special guests including Senator George Voinovich and his wife Janet.
Paul Burik, past-president of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation, told which of the statues is his favorite. Even though he runs the Czech Garden, it is not a Czech. It is Tesla.
Paul Burik
Besides these 2 busts the Serbian Cultural Garden has busts of King Peter I, Bishop Njegos, Mihajlo Pupin (scientist), Stevan Mokranjac (composer) and a life-size icon of St. Sava, the Serbian patron saint. The Serbian Cultural Garden in Rockefeller Park, which together with a chain of more than 30 other nationality gardens, is an international symbol of peace and cultural diversity.Take a walk through the Garden in this video tour.
Enjoy these other images from the Dedication.***
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Photos of all the busts in the Serbian Cultural Garden
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