 However, as a result of the prohibition of gambling in the Napoleonic era, he was forced to sell the residence to the Marquis Rocca Saporiti from Genoa.The mansion was built as part of a redevelopment project in the vicinity of the Porta Orientale on land which had belonged to the Capuchin Friars until their order was dissolved by the Austrian administration.Completed in 1812, the project was said to have been designed by Innocenzo Giusti but it was in fact the work of Giovanni Perego, the Scala's famous scenographer, who was not officially entitled to handle the commission as he was not a professional architect.