Kizhi Pogost - Multi-storey, Multi-cupola, Single-block Masterpieces
Almost three hundred years ago the Russian inhabitants around Lake Onega decided that they needed two new churches – the old ones had burned down in a fire.
It was decided that the island in the middle of the lake, Kizhi, would be the ideal place for their new place of worship.
So began the construction of a pair of what have become two of the oldest exclusively wooden churches in the world. All who see them agree - they are multi-story, mutli-cupola, single-block masterpieces.
Now in the Republic of Karelia (part of the Russian Federation) the island was not chosen as the site of the church for aesthetic reasons – although that may have been motivation enough. The time in which it was built was one of conflict between Russia and its neighbors. Kizhi island was chosen to make the church safer from Swedish and Polish incursions in to the area.
The larger of the two places of worship, the Church of the Transfiguration has no less than twenty two domes. The smaller, the Church of the Intercession has nine. Yet why build two such churches together? Why not combine efforts and create one large church? The answer is in the climate.
The names of the builders were never recorded yet legends remain. It is still said that the master builder used a single, magnificent axe for the duration of the entire project. When construction was finished he threw it, Excalibur-like, in to the lake, uttering “there was not and will be not another one to match it".
The tools and skills used were incredible – the Church of the Intercession is undoubtedly an amazing structure and a tribute to those anonymous builders. It has stood impassively for almost three hundred years, mostly made of pine with the domes covered in aspen, while history has changed the world around it irrevocably.
It is five meters shorter than the Church of the Transfiguration even though one might imagine it to be smaller still. The belfry is decidedly juvenile in age, being built to replace on older one in 1862. Resting on a rubble foundation it reaches thirty meters in height and is topped with a wooden cross. The belfry is built with the same kind of wood as the churches, pine, aspen and some spruce.
In 1990, the Kizhi Pogost was included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.
