Moscow (Russia) -- Description and travel; Moscow (Russia) -- History
section, although giving minute details respecting other towers and
portions of the wall. It is not accessible to the public, and special
permission from the commandant of the fortress is now required before
admission is given to the rampart walk.
The Spasski (Redeemer) Gate, constructed in the reign of Ivan III.
(1491), by Peter Antonio Solarius of Milan, was at first known as the
Florovski gate from a church dedicated to St Florus in its vicinity. It
bears the following inscription:--
"Johannes Vassilii Dei gratia magnus Dux Volodomiræ, Moscoviæ.
Novoguardiæ, Iferiæ, Plescoviæ, Veticiæ, Ougariæ, Permiæ, Volgariæ
et aliarum totiusque Roxiæ dominus: anno 30 imperii sui has turres
condere jussit, et statuit Petrus Solarius Mediolanensis, anno
nativitatis Domini 1491."
When the church of the Holy Trinity was built this gate took the name of
the "Jerusalem Gate," because the Palm Sunday procession passed beneath
it. In 1626 during the reign of the Tsar Mikhail Theodorovich,
Christopher Galloway, an English clockmaker, constructed the spire and
placed therein a striking clock, which, however, was subsequently
removed. After various changes, in 1737 the Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna
caused the one now in use to be placed there. The building itself is
formed of thick double walls, between which are passages and staircases
of wood and stone; brick buttresses connect the walls and support the
upper storeys. The second is the clock tower; the third of octagonal
form, has eight arches on which the spire is carried. Over the entrance
is the miraculous ikon of the Redeemer, brought back from Smolensk by
the Tsar Alexis in 1647. It is to this picture that the orthodox
attribute the raising of the siege of Moscow by the Tartars under
Makhmet-Ghiree in 1526; it is still held in great veneration, and it is
customary for all to uncover whilst passing through the gate. Formerly
an omission to do so was punished with two score and half compulsory
prostrations. The Redeemer Gate is the state entrance to the Kremlin; by
it the Tsars entered and left on all important occasions. Ivan III.
passed through after quelling the revolt at Nijni Novgorod; Ivan
"Groznoi" after taking Kazan; Vasili Shooiski after the delivery of
Moscow from the Poles; here the people went to meet the young Tsar
Michael Romanof after his election. The remains of Shooiski were brought
through this gate, and by it passed the funeral processions of the Tsars
Peter II., Alexander I. and Alexander II. Since the eighteenth century
the Tsars have made their state entry to the Kremlin for the coronation
by the Redeemer Gate. Criminals executed near the Lobnoe Mesto
addressed their last prayers to the ikon above its portal; near it the
"hundreds" of Streltsi were executed by order of Peter the Great, and in
his reign the heterodox who refused to shave their heads paid a fine on
passing it. The French tried to blow up the gate with gunpowder, but it
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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