The Rigo family belonged to the original nobility of Novigrad (having carried the comital title since 1743). For centuries its members held the most important public offices in the city. One of the many guests at the family's country estate on the Karpinjan peninsula was the renowned travel writer A. Fortis.

Contrary to the settler nobility of modern times, the counts Rigo did not neglect the dying city of their origin. As authentic representatives of the city nobility, in 1770 they financed the building of a new, representative town palace. This building is a fine example of "Central European Baroque", which reached the Istrian coastland via the "Theresian" Trieste. The façade of this enclosed architectural cube is structured with harmonious decorative elements that were not usual for Istrian palaces of the time.

Since the restoration of the façade in 1994, the ground floor houses a modern and contemporary art gallery named after the Rigo family. According to historical records, Count Carl Rigo, who commissioned the construction of the family's country mansion on the Karpinjan peninsula, was the son of Venetian poet and painter Maria Giovanna Marcello.