A wealthy merchant from Gothenburg, John Hall, purchased the Gunnebo estate in 1778 and entrusted the construction of his summer home to the city's architect, Carl Wilhelm Carlberg. Carlberg did not stop at drawing up plans for the building - he also designed the furniture, furnaces and fabrics, the outhouses, gardens and terraces, and landscaped the surrounding grounds. The castle is a jewel of neo-Classical architecture.