According to the legend, the Oršić
family, which built the palace and inhabited it until the
1920s, originated from the Croatian Lapčani and Karinjani
tribe. The family was first mentioned in a 1420 document
from Knin. In 1487, the king Matthias Corvinus gave them
the estate of Slavetić, near Jastrebarsko, and they were
given the attribute of Slavetić because of it. In the 16th
century, the family gained other estates in Croatia and
abroad and started to form family ties with peer families.
In the 17th century all the estates were in the hands of
the sole male heir of the family, called Matija, a Border
captain whose wealth helped his sons obtain the titles of
barons.
Matija’s son Ivan Franjo acquired the estate of Gornja
Stubica. He married Elizabeta Petričević, the daughter of
Juraj Petričević of Miketinec, the owner of Gornja Stubica,
Jakovlje, and Prazno. In 1658, Elizabeta’s brother Franjo
killed his wife Katarina, the baroness Keglević, in Stubica.
The murder awoke much attention and, according to the law
of the time, the family of the murdered could ask for the
murderer’s estates as indemnity.
But Petričević made an arrangement with his brother-in-law
and ceded him a part of his father’s estates in exchange
for the estate of Petrovina in Turopolje, given to Elizabeta
as dowry. The murderer was never arrested, despite the efforts
of Katarina’s family, but all the estates were ceased for
the benefit of the state. The emperor did not want to authorise
the exchange agreement, but he gave Franjo Oršić and his
descendants the deed of gift for those estates. By a secret
agreement, Oršić gave Stubica in usufruct to Franjo Petričević,
provided that Petričević, whose sole heir at the time was
his little daughter, gave the estate back to the Oršić family
if he should die without a male heir. |
The coat-of-arms
of the Oršić family |
