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Landmark Kremlin tower to get scaffolding removed after 4-month repairs

Muscovites and tourists will be able to admire the Spasskaya Tower in all its glory in late April

© Ilya Pitalev/TASS

MOSCOW, April 3. /TASS/. On Friday Muscovites will see the ruby star and spire of the Kremlin main clock Spasskaya Tower which has been fully wrapped in scaffolding since mid-December.

"The dismantling of the inner parts of the scaffolding frame has started today and soon the workers will begin removing the exterior scaffolding," Sergey Devyatov, a spokesman for the Federal Protection Service, told TASS.

The landmark tower restoration began in late 2014.

Devyatov said earlier that the final stage of the restoration had been complicated by a strong wind raging in Moscow but the workers still managed to keep up with the schedule.

Muscovites and tourists will be able to admire the Spasskaya Tower in all its glory in late April.

According to Devyatov, the Kremlin clock has also undergone planned maintenance. The clock was installed in 1767 and last repaired in 1999.

The Spasskaya (Saviour's) Tower was built in 1491 by an Italian architect, Pietro Antonio Solari, and got its name from an icon of Christ the Saviour which was placed above the tower's gates. The icon was removed in 1917 after the Bolshevik Revolution.

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