Officers' portraits

In this room, one can see about forty officers who served in the Joseph Count Esterházy Regiment that was commanded by Josip Kazimir Drašković. Portraits are probably the work of Johann Michael Millitz and his school. Officers are all painted in similar postures, up to the waist, with realistic depiction of faces.

Josip Kazimir is accorded a prominent place among the portraited officers, as well as in the military history of the Drašković family. Since 1734 he was an active participant in battles across Europe. He was noted for his courage in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), and then fought very successful in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).

He was promoted to the general of the artillery and the commanding general in Transylvania, and was appointed Great Župan of the Križevci County. He was awarded the highest military decoration of the Austrian Empire - the Commander's Cross of the Maria Theresa Order. At the time of the planned arrival in Croatia of Empress and Queen Maria Theresa (the visit never actually took place) Josip Kazimir Drašković enjoyed the highest reputation among the Croatian magnates, and it was precisely he who was supposed to provide hospitality for the exalted guest.

Marriage with a woman of lesser nobility

The marriage with Suzana Malatinski, a woman of lesser nobility, certainly harmed a brilliant military career of Josip Kazimir and closed for him the doors to the highest titles. Baltazar Adam Krčelić who chronicled this era tells as much: The General Count Josip Kazimir Drašković, who is still alive and of whom I made frequent mentions earlier, lived as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Regiment stationed in the Hungarian town of Lipótvár. As he was a womanizer and fond of the pleasures of love, he found himself bedazzled by the unusual beauty and elegant figure of one Suzana Malatinski whom he could not get but only if he had married her, decided to take her as his wife. This proved indeed fatal for the famed Drašković family and caused their downfall. The General's mother Katarina, née Preindass, would not even allow Suzana to come before her. However, she provided for her in Varaždin, but quite meagerly so that Suzana's husband was forced to fall into debt for the maintenance of both her wife and her relatives.

Even though Baltazar Krčelić describes Suzana in a negative light, she is very likely to have saved the family from bankruptcy, as her husband, Josip Kazimir, was completely given to his military career and even neglected the management of the state. Suzana was very pious, and she made lavish donations to churches and altars. After the death of her husband, she entered very early into a secret, second marriage with the Ban Ferenc Nádasdy.