The mansion was built between 1773 and 1777 in a braided Baroque and Rococo style by the Jesuit Viennese hydrology expert and architect Gabriel Gruber who as the builder of the canal to drain the Ljubljana Marshes used the mansion as a physics and hydraulics research institute.
In 1840, the mansion was purchased by Anton Virant who merged the property with his own adjacent and used it as a guest accommodation and cafe named "Zur Sternwarte" (meaning observatory).