The construction of the building dates back to the second half of the 16th century, when the Becchi Counts decided to build their representative residence in the city and chose a place – via della Ghiara, now Corso Garibaldi – which was then particularly strategic for trade. As early as the fifteenth century, various families of the city's elite settled here, so much so that we can speak of a real urban planning attention (later intensified with the erection - starting from 1597 - of the Basilica of the Madonna della Ghiara), on the basis of which a precise alignment of the facades and a careful perspective insertion of the buildings in the road fabric was required, often through the application of corner decorations. Palazzo Magnani also has this type of decoration: the marble herm depicting Janus with two faces, the work of the sculptor Prospero Sogari, known as il Clemente, and dated 1576. Of the original building of that period, only the planimetric layout remains today which revolves around a courtyard central and the angular marble herm. From the beginning of the 19th century, the Palazzo was sold to another family from Reggio, the Chioffi, who in 1841 promoted important restorations. In fact, we are witnessing a complete makeover of the building in neoclassical style, visible above all in the internal and external facades and in the central staircase. In that period the palace probably took on its present form, while the internal decorations and the frescoes on the ceilings of the rooms on the first floor were created over a longer period of time, until the late nineteenth century.