"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 was saved by the timely intervention of the Cossacks.