The first stone was laid in 1492. The works were directed by Filippo Grassi, a stonecutter who had already been active in the city for over a decade, and whose professional culmination was this project. The French invasions starting in 1509 and the sack of Brescia in 1512 interrupted construction. The work resumed in 1535 and the palace was completed in 1574 after numerous interventions by the most famous architects of the time, including Jacopo Sansovino, Andrea Palladio, and Lodovico Beretta who completed the building.