The Kremlin's present walls were built by Italian masters (1485–1495).
Thirteen years after they were finished, Michelangelo began the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
The events
- Building the brick walls of the Moscow Kremlin1485–1495 · Moscow Kremlin. In 1485–1495, under Ivan III, Italian masters including Pietro Antonio Solari built the new brick walls and towers of the Moscow Kremlin. The fortress survives to this day.
- Sistine Chapel ceiling1508–1512 · Rome. Commissioned by Pope Julius II, Michelangelo spent four years painting the chapel's vault with scenes from Genesis. The frescoes, including the Creation of Adam, became a summit of High Renaissance art.
More amazing facts
- 1450 · 1564 Ivan Fyodorov's Apostol (1564), the first precisely dated Russian printed book, came out more than a century after Gutenberg's press.
- 1480 · 1492 The Horde's rule over Rus' ended with the Great Stand on the Ugra in 1480 — only 12 years before Columbus reached the Americas.
- 1480 · 1492 Rus threw off the Horde in 1480 and Spain completed the Reconquista in 1492: two centuries-long struggles ended almost together.
- 1492 1492: Granada fell in January, Columbus reached the Americas in October, and in November the Ensisheim meteorite fell in Alsace — one of Europe's oldest witnessed falls.
- 1494 · 1497 Ivan III's law code (1497) appeared three years after Spain and Portugal divided the world between them at Tordesillas.
- 1519 · 1521 While Magellan's expedition circled the globe, Cortés fought the Aztecs.