Koper is a dense city on a former island by the Istrian coast, below the outflow of the Rižana. Today the expanded settlement has spread along the gravelled lowlands and into the hinterland.

The core has preserved its semicircle shape, fortified in the Middle Ages. Behind the remains of the walls lies a Mediterranean settlement with remains from antiquity and winding streets, which the buildings grew up around. One of the oldest houses, whose exterior reveals Gothic elements and an older building, is Perkauz House, which forms a corner at the boundary of the former edge of the island, where originally houses were not behind the fortification walls.

The unplastered stone facades are almost without openings on the ground floor. Rare larger windows, which are all hidden behind shutters today, were made centuries after the house had been built. By every open facade on the floor stand pairs of double windows. Those are excellent stonemasons' work with great pillars and window arches.

The house was built in the 14th century by a wealthy inhabitant of Koper. The locals created a legend which says that there used to be an old court in the building, the "tribunal vecchio".