The building was finished in 1760, by architect Andreas Mayerhoffer for Hungarian aristocrat Antal Grassalkovich of Croatian descent, a close friend of Maria Theresa.

[1] For example, it was Haydn who conducted the orchestra when Maria Theresa's daughter married Albert of Sachsen-Teschen, then governor of the Kingdom of Hungary (see Bratislava Castle).

Ľudovít Štúr is said to have declared his love to Adela Ostrolúcka for the first time during a ball organized by Archduke Stephen Francis Victor (Buda 14 September 1817 – Menton 19 February 1867), son of the Palatine, Joseph.

After the Treaty of Trianon, it was first used again as the personal residence of the fascist Jozef Tiso, leader of the Slovak Republic but from 1919 the palace was occupied by the Territorial Military Command.

[3] During the 1939–1945 period, the palace was adapted by Emil Belluš[3] and became the seat of the President of the First Slovak Republic (i.e. of Jozef Tiso).

During the Communist era, it was first (after 1945) the seat of the Council of Commissioners (also styled Corps of Plenipotentiaries), which was a quasi-government of Slovakia within Czechoslovakia.

The schoolchildren caused extensive damage to the palace, and the necessary restoration only became possible following the transition from Communism in late 1989 with the Velvet Revolution.

The hall contains portraits of ruler of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy Charles VI, his wife Elizabeth Christina and their children.