The House of Attems (Attimis in Italian) is the name of an ancient and illustrious parliamentary family from Friuli that held the titles of princes, counts and barons.

It seems certain that the founder of it is Enrico, already Margrave of Tuscany, who in February 1170 was appointed with his brother Arpone among the deacons of the patriarch of Aquileia Woldarico and from this, in the same year, was conferred the castle of Attems or Attimis.

[3] Enrico, son of Rodolfo, count of Bregenz and Monfort, participated in the wars of Italy led by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor.

The sons of Rodolfo, Enrico and Arbeno (undoubted descendants of today's Attems of the Trident), were close to the patriarch Vodalrico which was consequently fraternal to the Emperor Frederick both in friendship and in blood.

[5] It was subsequently conferred to Enrico and Arbeno Attems by the grateful patriarch in recognition of the faithful services provided in the wars with Frederick I.

Between its borders it embraced many villages of the promontory, and spread out in the plains until the vicinity of Udine in that territory Raimondo della Torre knighted Enrico son of Alberto count of Gorizia and other Alemannic barons and lords of Friuli.

The family hired the venture captain Bello di Portogallo and his mercenaries, which, attending compensation for their service, took the Attems' Lower Castle as guarantee.

In light of such the Attems built at the base of the hill a fortified manor which the Italian branch of the family resided in until 1944 when it was burnt down by the Nazifascist regime.

[9][10] After the conquest of Friuli by the Republic of Venice and the incorporation into the Domini di Terraferma by 1433, a part of the family remained in Attimis while Frederick of Attems (1447–1521) moved to Gorizia (Görz), where in 1473 he became chancellor to the last Count Leonhard.

When the latter's comital line became extinct in 1500, he was confirmed in that office (Count) by the Habsburg emperor Maximilian I and in 1506 even was appointed governor of the Gorizia on behalf of the Inner Austrian archdukes.

Since then, the Attems family played an important role in the Habsburg monarchy; both lines were elevated to the rank of Freiherren (Barons) in 1605 and given the title of Reichsgrafen (Counts of the Holy Roman Empire) in 1630 (Heiligenkreuz) and 1653 (Petzenstein).

The Palace is found about 15 km south of Slovenska Bistrica, where the family owned a castle in the city centre (then nationalised by the Yugoslavian state after the second world war).

The structure built on the basis of a project by architect Nicolò Pacassi, characterized by a style of transition between the baroque and the rococò, was subjected to neoclassical restructuring in the first half of the nineteenth century, which made the original features of the façade unrecognizable.

The historical and artistic heritage of this building, as well as being represented by the various stuccos and frescoes dating back to the last part of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is also enhanced by the canvas depicting "Gli dei dell'Olimpo" located on the ceiling of the great internal hall, attributed to the painter Antonio Paroli (1745).