The Spasskaya
(Our Savior) Tower
The Spasskaya Tower with its chiming clock is considered the symbol of the Kremlin. It was erected in 1491 by Pietro Solari, and was called Frolovskaya up till the mid - 17th century. Later, the Vernicle Face of our Savior was placed over is gates, and it was renamed as Spasskaya (from the Russian word "Spas" meaning "Savior").
The Spasskiye thoroughfare gates is the main gates of the Kremlin; Russian tsars and emperors came through it according to an old tradition. These gates all the sovereigns used to enter the Kremlin for crowning. People worshiped these gates. Entering them on horseback, everyone dismounted and put off his hat.
In 1625, the Spasskaya Tower was crowned with a stone roof to house the main clock in Russia - the Chiming Clock (3). However, Muscovites had a ways managed to know the exact time since 1404, when Lasar Serbin installed on the grand-prince's palace a clock with a figure of a mechanical man striking a "clock thing" with a hammer every hour. Later, a new clock was installed on the Spasskaya Tower by English expert Christopher Holloway and Russian craftsmen Zhdan and Shumilo. On a huge blue face symbolizing the sky, silver stars, a full and a crescent moon were pictured. Those were rounded by 17 gilded Arabian figures and the same number of Church-Slavic letters indicating figures in pre-Peter Russia. The clock was called "a miracle in the world" by foreigners.
In Soviet times, the chiming clock played the "Internationale" and the march "You were a victim." Since the summer of 1996, the Kremlin clock has played the national anthem of Russia.