Jakab Grasics, a landholder in the town, had it built in Baroque style from the stones of the castle of Kanizsa between 1705 and 1712. It passed into the ownership of the Batthyány family in the middle of the 18th century; people of Kanizsa gave the name “princely castle” to it. The offices of the estates of the principality in the neighbourhood of Kanizsa were situated here. It was the home of the manorial farm-bailiff and the Princely Office of Woods and Forests was run here until 1945.

The house of worship of the Jewish community could also be found in the building opening onto the yard between 1805 and 1822. The editorial and publishing office of Zalai Közlöny (Zalai Gazette) was run here between 1922 and 1947. The building has been the home of György Thúry Museum since 1968. The permanent exhibition “People, Roads and Relations” (The Millennia of Southern Zala) and periodical exhibitions can be visited upstairs; the repositories are situated on the ground floor.

The floor plan of the Baroque building is L-shaped. The one-storey part of the building opening onto the yard is decorated with arcades on both floors; the wing from the direction of Fő út has three axes just here and an avant-corps ending in a tympanum on top.

The main gate is arched and stone-framed, its doorway and corridor on the ground floor are barrel vaulted. The rooms on the ground floor are covered with Bohemian vault. The ground floor is decorated with quoins on its outside façade, with a wide cornice running round over it. “Three-eared” window frames can be seen upstairs and an enclosed balcony with an arched floor plan from the direction of Múzeum tér. Tradition has it that people watched from here if the executioner’s sword – the symbol of power – was put outside at the Town Hall which stood once over the street.

The neighbouring building in Fő út – the former Hotel Korona – was also part of the landed property in times past. This was the most elegant hotel in the neighbourhood until the beginning of the 20th century. The façades of these two buildings were harmonized in the middle of the 19th century.