In 1491, the famous Italian architect Pietro Antonio Solari, commissioned by Ivan III, to build a huge tower. Initially, it was given the name of the Frolovskaya Strelnitsa (in honor of the then nearby Church of Frol and Laurus). The tower itself was made of white stone, and its height was about half the current one. Almost 200 years after its foundation, the Frolovsky Gate, and with it the tower, was renamed the Spassky Gate.

The Spassky Gate was considered holy. It was allowed to pass through them only on foot, and it was necessary to take off your hat in front of the image of the Savior. A person who broke this law was punished in the form of repeated prostrations. According to one of the surviving legends, during the passage of Napoleon, who entered Moscow through the Spassky Gate, the wind tore off his cocked hat from his head.

At the beginning of the 17th century, architect Christopher Galovey, who arrived from England, and Russian architect Bazhen Ogurtsov rebuilt the tower, complementing it with a stone tent, where a large clock was placed. A few years later, by order of Alexei Mikhailovich, the autocrat of All Russia, the rebuilt and expanded tower became known as Spasskaya.

The clock on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin changed several times until Butenopa's masters installed modern chimes in the middle of the 19th century. But during the battles in October 1917, a shell hit the Spasskaya Tower, as a result of which the clock mechanism was damaged. By Lenin's order, two years later, in 1919, Master Behrens adjusted the chimes.

The huge clock occupies from the eighth to the tenth tiers of the tower. Today at noon, midnight, at 6 am and 6 pm, the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin sing the anthem of Russia, and at 3:00, 9:00, 15:00 and 21:00 the melody “Glory” from the famous opera by Glinka is played A Life for the Tsar.

Previously, a double-headed eagle was installed on the tower spire, but during the Soviet era it was replaced by a red ruby star, which crowns the Spasskaya Tower to this day. The Spassky Gate, as in previous eras, is the main Kremlin gate. Today, they are open only on outstanding days, for example, on the occasion of the inauguration of the President. For centuries, participants in all significant processions and parades, tsars and foreign high-ranking guests have passed to the Kremlin through the Spassky Gate.