Thomas Wolsey begins to build himself a palace at Hampton Court, but will later consider it politic to give it to Henry VIII

Francis I begins to transform Fontainebleau into a palace, employing artists who establish the mannerist school of Fontainebleau

Sinan completes his masterpiece, the mosque of Suleiman I in Istanbul

Philip II begins construction of the palace and monastery known as the Escorial

Palladio publishes I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura ('The Four Books of Architecture'), which include his influential designs for villas

Akbar builds his new palace of Fatehpur Sikri close to the shrine of a Sufi saint

The tomb in Delhi of the Mughal emperor Humayun introduces the shape of dome which characterizes his dynasty's architecture

The dome of St Peter's is finished, completing nearly a century of construction on Europe's largest church

The Globe, where many of Shakespeare's plays are first performed, is built on Bankside in London

The Blue Mosque, commissioned by Ahmed I, begins to rise in Istanbul like a twin to the nearby Santa Sophia

The Teatro Farnese in Parma is the first to have a proscenium arch, framing perspective scenery painted on flat wings

The sculptor and architect Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini is given the task of adding the drama of baroque to the newly completed St Peter's in Rome

Shah Jahan begins building the Taj Mahal as a memorial for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal

Louis XIV commissions a well-established team of designers to provide him with a spectacular palace and garden at Versailles

Bernini's great curving colonnade is completed, to form the piazza in front of St Peter's

The Dutch develop a new pattern of middle-class urban life and architecture, later copied in England

The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb begins building the great Badshahi Mosque in Lahore

The double-hung sash window is introduced in England and soon spreads to Holland

Christopher Wren's new domed St Paul's cathedral is completed in London

Colen Campbell creates interest in the Palladian style in Britain with the publication of his Vitruvius Britannicus

The earl of Burlington employs Colen Campbell to remodel his Piccadilly house in the Palladian style

Frederick the Great begins to build the summer palace of Sans Souci at Potsdam

Horace Walpole begins to create his own Strawberry Hill, a neo-Gothic fantasy, on the banks of the Thames west of London

Robert Adam returns to Britain after two years in Rome with a repertoire of classical themes which he mingles to form a new British neoclassicism

Work begins on Edinburgh's New Town, to the design of the 23-year-old architect James Craig