Spasskaya Tower

Step back from the gate to see how the broad, square base gives way to narrowing tiers and a sharply pointed roof.

Getting there

Kremlyovskaya metro station › Bauman Street › Steps to May Day Square › Spasskaya Tower

Leave the metro at the beginning of Bauman Street and climb the broad steps to the Musa Jalil monument. Cross May Day Square towards the white clock tower.

Before entering, look back down Bauman Street from the top step to see how sharply it dips below the Kremlin hill.

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History

From May Day Square, imagine the tower without anything above its square base. That two-storey gateway is what the Pskov builders Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Shiryay built between 1556 and 1562. A wooden lookout stood on top, and the walls were up to two and a half metres thick. The tower takes its name from the Church of the Saviour over the gate, intended to hold the icon Ivan the Terrible carried on campaign. The two octagonal brick tiers and the steep spire date from the 1670s. The straight passage you use today only opened in 1930.

Sources

55.79650, 49.10811

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