Kizhi Pogost
A cluster of wooden churches on an island in Lake Onega, topped by a tower of silvery domes.
About
On a narrow island in Lake Onega, two great wooden churches and a bell tower stand inside a low fence. The Transfiguration Church, with its 22 domes clad in aspen shingles, shimmers silver in the evening light. The smaller Intercession Church beside it is heated and used in winter.
The builders are said to have worked with axes alone, and local tradition claims no nails were used. The island is now an open-air museum with farmhouses, barns and windmills brought from villages across the region.
The Transfiguration Church has long been under restoration, so check what is open before you travel.
History
The Transfiguration Church dates to the early eighteenth century and replaced an older wooden church struck by lightning. The pogost, a rural churchyard complex, became a museum in the twentieth century and was listed by UNESCO in 1990. The island has been a religious centre since at least the sixteenth century. The open-air museum was founded in the 1960s and gathers wooden buildings from villages across the region. A major restoration of the Transfiguration Church, which involved taking apart and rebuilding its domes, began in the 2010s.
UNESCO World Heritage: Inscribed 1990.