The red roof of this old residence shows through the treetops of tall poplars, mighty chestnuts, and imposing spruces and firs as the wind sways their branches. Before it came in the possession of the Babić family in the early 19th century, the mansion had been the home of the Gubaševečki and the Komarony families.

The Gredice Estate is mostly associated with its most famous owner, Croatian author Ljubo Babić, known under the pseudonym of Ksaver Šandor Đalski. With him, the Gredice Estate came to be a byword for the kind of life that was led on the estates and in the mansions of Hrvatsko Zagorje more than a hundred years ago. If we go even further back in the history, then we would see that the Gredice Estate had once been a part of the Gubaševo Estate belonging to the Gubaševečki family. The village of Gubaševo got its name after them, and still has that name. It had been a noble family from the early 16th century. The family gave many prominent officials such as a judge, a court chancellor, several deans of Zagreb, and other high-ranking officials. The Gubaševečki family built a wooden manor house on their estate.

After them, the new owners of the estate were the Komarony family. The most prominent member of the family was Sigismund Komarony, a royal adviser and a delegate of the Kingdom of Croatia to the Croatian-Hungarian Diet.

Matija Babić became the mansion's owner in 1813, after he had sold his family estate at Pokupsko and moved to Hrvatsko zagorje. His son Tito Babić, who held several high offices, inherited the Gredice Estate. Tito had four sons and three daughters: Albert, Ljubo, Nikola, Anton, Marija, Olga and Jelka. With the abolition of serfdom in 1848, the estate was for the most part sold to peasants, and a minor part of the estate together with the mansion were inherited by Ljubo Babić, the famous Croatian writer, who chose the name Ksaver Šandor Đalski, his grandfather on his mother's side, as his artistic pseudonym. Gjalski was born on the estate in 1854 and died there in 1935.

Gjalski spent a happy childhood on the Gredice Estate, surrounded by books in his family's rich library. He had private tutors who introduced him the world of literature at the tender age of five. He soon became aware of his literary talent and started to write.
Later on, he continued his education in Varaždin, and than he read the Roman Law at the School of Law in Zagreb and at the University of Vienna.

After his graduation, he became a civil servant holding office in many towns: Koprivnica, Osijek, Pakrac, Šid, Sisak, Rijeka and Zagreb.