Greatest Croatian

The Greatest Croatian (Najveći Hrvat) was an open-access poll conducted over five weeks in 2003 by the Croatian weekly Nacional.

The public was invited to vote via the magazine's website, text messages and postcards to determine the "Greatest Croatian" in history. Almost 8,000 votes were received during the course of the poll (6,507 via Internet, 520 text messages and 752 postcards), and the final results were published in the magazine's 6 January 2004 issue.

Final list




Due to the nature of the poll used to select and rank, the results do not pretend to be an objective assessment. The poll also had no rules on ethnicity or nationality of candidates, with readers free to send in votes for whomever they felt contributed to the history and society of modern-day Croatia.

In addition, Nacional published the list of people ordered by votes received, although two of these were listed twice in duplicate entries, which was likely due to tabulation error:
 * Painter Vlaho Bukovac was listed at no. 64 (with 13 votes) and no. 80 (with 7 votes). If these had been added up, he would have moved up to share no. 52 spot, with filmmaker Dušan Vukotić and pop singer Severina.
 * Nobel Prize-winning chemist Vladimir Prelog was listed at no. 57 (with 17 votes) and no. 96 (with 2 votes). If these had been added up, he would have moved up to share no. 54 spot, with politician Ivica Račan and folk rock singer Marko Perković Thompson.

Without the two duplicates, the list would have had 96 entries, but since two of these involve pairs of notable people (17th-century noblemen Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan at no. 37, and 19th-century explorer brothers Mirko and Stjepan Seljan at no. 88) the list ends up having 98 individuals.

They are as follows:


 * 1) Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), revolutionary, statesman and president of Yugoslavia 1953–1980
 * 2) Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), electrical engineer and inventor
 * 3) Ruđer Bošković (1711–1787), physicist, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher
 * 4) Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981), writer, playwright and poet
 * 5) Franjo Tuđman (1922–1999), statesman, President of Croatia 1990–99
 * 6) Dražen Petrović (1964–1993), basketball player, Olympic silver medalist
 * 7) Stjepan Mesić (b. 1934), President of Croatia 2000–10
 * 8) Ivo Andrić (1892–1975), novelist, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate
 * 9) Tin Ujević (1891–1955), poet
 * 10) Stevo Karapandža (b. 1947), celebrity chef
 * 11) Tomislav of Croatia (?–928), 10th-century ruler of Croatia
 * 12) Rahim Ademi (b. 1954), Croatian Army general
 * 13) Stipe Šuvar (1936–2004), sociologist and politician
 * 14) Vlado Gotovac (1930–2000), poet and politician
 * 15) Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962), sculptor and architect
 * 16) Josip Juraj Strossmayer (1815–1905), Roman Catholic bishop, benefactor and politician
 * 17) Janica Kostelić (b. 1982), alpine ski racer, Olympic gold medalist
 * 18) Stjepan Radić (1871–1928), early 20th century politician
 * 19) Josip Jelačić (1801–1859), 19th-century Ban (viceroy) of Croatia
 * 20) Ante Starčević (1823–1896), 19th-century politician
 * 21) Alojzije Stepinac (1898–1960), Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Zagreb 1937–1960
 * 22) Branimir Štulić (b. 1953), singer, songwriter and poet
 * 23) Rade Šerbedžija (b. 1946), stage and film actor
 * 24) Matija Gubec (c. 1556–1573), 16th-century leader of a peasant revolt
 * 25) Mirko Ilić (b. 1956), graphic designer and comics artist
 * 26) Miroslav Radman (b. 1944), biologist
 * 27) Ivan Supek (1915–2007), physicist, philosopher, and writer
 * 28) Franjo Kuharić (1919–2002), Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Zagreb 1970–1997
 * 29) Branko Bauer (1921–2002), film director
 * 30) Ante Gotovina (b. 1955), Croatian army lieutenant-general
 * 31) Miljenko Smoje (1923–1995), writer and journalist
 * 32) Goran Ivanišević (b. 1971), tennis player, winner of Wimbledon
 * 33) Marija Jurić Zagorka (1873–1957), journalist and novelist
 * 34) Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874–1938), children's writer
 * 35) Ljudevit Gaj (1809–1872), 19th-century linguist, politician and writer
 * 36) Marko Marulić (1450–1524), 15th-century poet
 * 37) Petar Zrinski (1621–1671) & Fran Krsto Frankopan (1643–1671), 17th-century noblemen, leaders of the Magnate conspiracy
 * 38) Mile Dedaković (b. 1951), soldier, one of the Croatian commanders in the 1991 Battle of Vukovar
 * 39) Lavoslav Ružička (1887–1976), scientist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate
 * 40) Juraj Dalmatinac (1410–1473), medieval sculptor and architect
 * 41) Krešimir Ćosić (1948–1995), basketball player, Olympic medalist and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee
 * 42) Slavoljub Penkala (1871–1922), engineer and inventor, created the mechanical pencil
 * 43) Vladimir Nazor (1876–1949), author and politician
 * 44) Ivan Gundulić (1589–1638), baroque Ragusan poet
 * 45) Arsen Dedić (1938–2015), singer-songwriter, composer and poet
 * 46) Marin Držić (1508–1567), renaissance Ragusan playwright
 * 47) Tarik Filipović (b. 1972), actor and television personality
 * 48) Goran Bregović (b. 1950), musician and composer
 * 49) Mate Ujević (1901–1967), poet and lexicographer
 * 50) Savka Dabčević-Kučar (1923–2009), politician, one of the leaders of the Croatian Spring movement
 * 51) Miroslav Blažević (b. 1935), association football coach, led Croatia to third place in the 1998 FIFA World Cup
 * 52) Dušan Vukotić (1927–1998), cartoonist, winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
 * 53) Severina Vučković (b. 1972), pop singer and actress
 * 54) Ivica Račan (1944–2007), politician and prime minister of Croatia 2000–2003
 * 55) Marko Perković Thompson (b. 1966), pop singer
 * 56) Ivan Goran Kovačić (1913–1943), poet and writer, killed in World War II
 * 57) Vladimir Prelog (1906–1998), scientist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate
 * 58) Branko Lustig (1932–2019), film producer, two-time Academy Awards winner
 * 59) Dražen Budiša (b. 1948), politician, one of the leaders of the Croatian Spring movement
 * 60) Mate Parlov (1948–2008), boxer, Olympic gold medalist
 * 61) Vatroslav Lisinski (1819–1854), 19th-century composer
 * 62) Faust Vrančić (1551–1617), polymath and inventor, best known for his 16th-century parachute design
 * 63) Boris Dvornik (1939–2008), actor
 * 64) Vlaho Bukovac (1855–1922), painter
 * 65) Andrija Štampar (1888–1958), promoter of social medicine
 * 66) Bernard Vukas (1927–1983), footballer, best known for his two spells at HNK Hajduk Split
 * 67) Zinka Kunc (1906–1989), opera soprano, performed at New York's Metropolitan Opera and Milan's La Scala opera houses
 * 68) Antun Mihanović (1796–1861), poet, best known for penning the lyrics to the Croatian anthem
 * 69) Fabijan Šovagović (1932–2001), actor
 * 70) Slavenka Drakulić (b. 1949), writer and journalist
 * 71) August Šenoa (1838–1881), 19th-century novelist
 * 72) Andrija Maurović (1901–1981), comic book artist, known as the "father of Croatian comics"
 * 73) Antun Augustinčić (1900–1979), sculptor
 * 74) Ante Topić Mimara (1898–1987), art collector, founder of the Mimara Museum
 * 75) Edo Murtić (1921–2005), painter
 * 76) Ivo Pogorelić (b. 1958), pianist
 * 77) Bruno Bušić (1939–1978), promoter of Croatia's independence, assassinated in exile in 1978
 * 78) Frano Supilo (1870–1917), politician and journalist, founder of Novi list daily
 * 79) Goran Višnjić (b. 1972), actor, best known for starring in the American TV series ER
 * 80) Vlaho Bukovac (duplicate entry, see #64)
 * 81) Andrija Hebrang (1899–1949), politician
 * 82) Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger (1856–1936), paleontologist, discovered the Neanderthal site near Krapina
 * 83) Juraj Križanić (1618–1683), 17th-century Catholic missionary
 * 84) Marin Getaldić (1568–1626), Ragusan scientist, best known for his work in optics
 * 85) Antun Gustav Matoš (1873–1914), poet and essayist
 * 86) Franjo Šeper (1905–1981), Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Zagreb 1960–1970
 * 87) Oliver Mlakar (b. 1935), television presenter
 * 88) Mirko Seljan (1871–1913) & Stjepan Seljan (1875–1936), explorers best known for their travels in South America and Africa
 * 89) Ivan Lupis (1813–1875), officer of the Austrian Navy, credited as the inventor of the torpedo
 * 90) Ante Trumbić (1864–1938), politician
 * 91) Franjo Trenk (1711–1749), Austrian officer, known as "father of the military band"
 * 92) Ivo Robić (1923–2000), singer and songwriter
 * 93) Ivan Generalić (1914–1992), naïve art painter
 * 94) Lovro pl. Matačić (1899–1985), conductor
 * 95) Slava Raškaj (1877–1906), 19th-century deaf woman painter
 * 96) Vladimir Prelog (duplicate entry, see #57)
 * 97) Branko Gavella (1885–1962), theatre director and essayist
 * 98) Krešo Golik (1922–1996), film director and screenwriter
 * 99) Bartol Kašić (1575–1650), linguist, wrote the first Croatian grammar and translated the Bible into Croatian
 * 100) Marko Turina (b. 1937), cardiac surgeon, first surgeon to operate a congenital heart defect on a newborn