Perin del Vaga, who worked with Raphael, was commissioned to make the initial design for Andrea Doria’s princely residence and the palazzo’s rich decorations. Work on the first phase of the garden continued until 1548. Work was resumed in 1578 by Doria’s heir, Giovanni Andrea I, who commissioned Giovanni Ponziello to build loggias overlooking the sea. Over the next century, the complex underwent so many modifications that its appearance was greatly changed. In the 1760s, the complex went into decline. In the mid-19th century, the “uphill garden” was demolished during building of the Genoa-Turin railway. Around this time, Filippo Andrea V Doria Pamphilj and his wife Mary Talbot converted what was left of the garden into an “English-style” garden. In 1944, the complex suffered considerable damage from bombardment. Recent restoration (1998-2000) has salvaged some of the garden’s 16th-century structure, which was better documented than other periods and built to reflect the building’s architecture. At the front, it consists of three parterresof which the main one, divided into formal and symmetrical compartments, is laid out around a “Fountain of Neptune” – the focal point of the entire arrangement. A smaller parterre in the easternmost portion of the courtyard surrounds the older “Dolphin Fountain”.