The initial university home was a building alongside a seminary and adjacent to where the present Catania Cathedral. That site was razed to create the spaces around the cathedral, and the university moved to different locales until finding a home in 1684 the building of the ospedale San Marco, located at this site. However, like most of the city, the structure was razed by the 1693 earthquake. Construction of a new palace began within a few years, the present design is the product of some of the main architects of baroque Catania, Francesco Battaglia, and his son Antonino Battaglia, and by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini. The structure was completed by 1760. Further restructuring was pursued by Antoni Battisi after the earthquake of 1818, and in 1879 by engineer Mario Di Stefano with work on the portal.