Tours: The Folk Architecture

Kizhi Pogost, Petrozavodsk

For centuries, wood has always been the traditional material for building. Until the 11th - 12th centuries, when stone was introduced to architecture, the entire Russia was wooden. Moreover, the Russian architects reached the dizzying heights in their craft. From century to century they perfected their skills creating incredibly beautiful houses, temples, bridges and farm buildings: mills, barns, wells.... The stone building completely stopped the tradition of wooden architecture in Russia, and by the 19th century it became clear that the existing structures were not only the masterpieces of folk architecture, whose traditions had long been lost, but also a part of the heritage of the Russian people. After that the miraculously survivors of wooden construction were brought to special places, which later were transformed into the museums of wooden architecture. Such museums are located in Suzdal, on the island of Kizhi in Karelia, in Kostroma, in Arkhangelsk, Nizhny Novgorod, and Novosibirsk. They look just as the old Russian villages, a complex of wooden buildings in the open. Typically, they were all put together without a single nail. A traditional Russian dwelling: wooden and log structures with triangular roofs, porches, and painted shutters. There are also churches with wooden domes(!), decorated with wood carvings, frames, intricately painted ... The oldest exhibits in such museums are over 200 years of age!