Tucked between the hillsides and the Franciscan convent of the SS. Annunziata del Guastato, the palace, built from 1618 onwards for Gio Agostino Balbi by chamber architect Bartolomeo Bianco, marked a new interpretation of the monumental architectural typologies already implemented fifty years earlier in Strada Nuova.

Remaining in the Balbi family's ownership until 1709, the palace then passed to Marcello Durazzo, Marquis of Gabiano, to the Durazzo Pallavicini family, to the Negrotto Cambiaso family and finally to the Cattaneo Adorno family, who still own it today.

Of great interest is the planimetric composition of the building, organised around a double "U", a solution that allows the spaces to adapt to the steep slope, developed in loggia wings, galleries and hanging gardens. Rich in 18th-century frescoes in the interiors, the palazzo still has a valuable collection of paintings, including canvases by Titian, Tintoretto, Carracci, Reni, Guercino, Rubens and Van Dyck.