Palazzo Reale (Palazzo Stefano Balbi)

Palazzo Reale, also known as Palazzo Stefano Balbi, stands at Via Balbi 10 in the Prè district of Genoa and is the principal surviving royal residence in the city. It was begun in 1618 for the Balbi family, rich merchants and bankers, to designs attributed to Bartolomeo Bianco, and construction continued to about 1655, with Pier Francesco Cantone also involved. The palace later passed to the Durazzo family, who enlarged and redecorated it in the 18th century, and in 1824 it was acquired by the House of Savoy, becoming their Genoa residence after the city was absorbed into the Kingdom of Sardinia. The Savoy years left a layer of furniture, mirrors, chandeliers and decorative schemes that still defines the interiors. The building belongs to the Strade Nuove and Rolli UNESCO ensemble. Its Baroque character shows in the monumental staircase, the loggia-lined courtyard and a sequence of state rooms including the Galleria degli Specchi, a mirrored gallery with a ceiling painted by Domenico Parodi's circle, which recalls French court taste. The terraced garden descends toward the harbour and includes a pebble mosaic floor. The rooms hold paintings by Genoese and foreign artists, sculpture and period furnishings, arranged as a historic house in which the original domestic and ceremonial sequence is the main exhibit rather than a chronological gallery. The palace now belongs to the state and is run as a national museum, with conservation work on frescoes, textiles and gilded surfaces continuing across the complex. Visitors often combine it with the nearby Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola through a shared ticket. Via Balbi itself is a historic street connecting to the university buildings and the old port area, and the palace provides a counterpoint to the earlier Strada Nuova palaces by showing the Baroque phase of Genoese building and its later adoption by a royal dynasty.