Marco Ruffo

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Marco Ruffo mistakenly known as Marco Fryazin (Марк Фрязин, Марко Фрязин and Марко Руффо in Russian) was an Italian architect active in Moscow in the 15th century.

The Fryazin title originates from the old Russian word фрязь (fryaz) that used to denote people from Northern Italy. Beside Marco Ruffo, as a matter of fact, at least three contemporany Italians had this nickname in Russia: Antonio Fryazin (Antonio Gilardi), Bon Fryazin (Marco Bon), Aleviz Fryazin (Aloisio da Milano).

One of the chronicles says that Marco Ruffo worked in Moscow in 1485-1495 at the invitation of Ivan III. He built a number of the Kremlin towers, including the Beklemishevskaya, Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers. In 1491, together with Pietro Antonio Solari, Marco Ruffo finished the construction of the Palace of Facets.

In December 1991, in Moscow, Unesco celebrated Palace of Facets 500°jubilee.