What is called the Palazzo Reale or royal palace today is actually a huge patrician residence built up and adorned with splendour over the years not only by the House of Savoy in the 19th century but also by two great Genoese dynasties, namely the Balbi family, who built it between 1643 and 1650, and the Durazzo, who enlarged it in the late 17th and early 18th century.