Dubrovnik’s newly named Ruđer Bošković International has sparked an ethnic row between Croatians and Serbs over the lineage of Bošković, an 18th-century astronomer, mathematician, and polymath.
Born in 1711 in the self-governing republic of Ragusa, Bošković left for Rome at the age of 14 to pursue his education and career. The identity of his father, Nikola, is now in question.
Nikola Bošković was a Ragusan trader from the village of Orahov Do, which now lies in the Bosniak (Muslim) and Croat half of Bosnia known as the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Separatist leaders want to build their own airport at Trebinje, not far from Orahov Do, and name it after Ruđer Bošković too, arguing that Bošković and his clan were Serbs before they converted to Catholicism.
Serbian scholars argue that the family’s conversion was transactional and did not change the family’s essential Serb identity. However, Ivan Maslać, the commercial director of Dubrovnik airport, dismisses such claims, stating that Ruđer Bošković is not a Serb.
The tussle over celebrated past residents is nothing new, as Serbia named Belgrade’s airport after Nikola Tesla, the legendary inventor and grandfather of electric engineering. Belgrade claims Tesla as its own, and the Serbian Orthodox church has been campaigning to have his ashes moved to a cathedral.
In Bosnia, the question of Trebinje has another dimension, with an effort by Bosnian Serb nationalists and separatist leader Milorad Dodik to reinforce the autonomy of Republika Srpska. The project has so far been blocked by Croat and Bosniak members of the shared Bosnian presidency.
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