Interior view
by PONZELLO, Giovanni, Photo
From the large entrance vestibule a staircase ascends through a screen of Doric columns to a light-filled courtyard. This is completely surrounded by a two-tier loggia articulated with Doric and Ionic columns. The colonnades with their dramatic play of light and shade act as an open circulation system for the different levels of the palazzo. At the end of the courtyard an open T-shaped double-ramped staircase rises through two floors to a garden entrance (destroyed) into San Francesco. This perspective staircase design adapted ideas from contemporary and early 16th-century Spanish open hall staircases.
View the ground plan and section of Palazzo Doria-Tursi, Genoa.