Now it's time to tell about the main purpose of my trip to the north this summer.

It's churchyard on the island of Kizhi is the heart of the museum of wooden architecture. How much I've heard about this place. How many saw beautiful photos. In my mind, the many-domed wooden domes of the Kizhi churchyard were equal to the epic tales of the fabulous Kitezh magic city.

About how I got to Kizhi Island and how I got to Lake Onega, I already made reports.

My Russian north stories. 2018.

Russian North stories. Kirillo-Belozersky monastery.

The best trip when vehicles change on a trip

Ancient works of art

How it all began or the road to the Russian North

Sanctuary. A series of stories about Lake Onega and Kizhi.

Story 1000 km from home

---

I came to the island and saw this miracle of wooden architecture at a time when the main wooden church of the Transfiguration Church was closed by construction scaffolding.
Museum staff explained that the restoration of the appearance of the church will be completed by the end of 2018 and internal work will end in 2020.
Despite this fact, I received a lot of pleasure and admiration from what I saw.

On the island, the whole life is subordinated to the museum. Workers of the museum sit and wait for tourists. Tourists arrive on the island on large ships or on high-speed boats. The schedule of arrivals of ships is known and the museum staff is well aware of this. Each motor ship brings a large number of tourists who are moving around the island with a large crowd.
What I do not like most of all on trips is big crowds of people. Therefore, I always try not to follow the crowd. This time we also managed to pass the crowd.

The fact is that we arrived on the island from the back door. Usually all tourists and visitors get to Kizhi Island through the main jetty. There is also a cash desk. Tourists pay for the ticket and go to the museum.
We landed on the island at the farthest point from the island. We swam in a boat and landed without a ticket, however, we promised that we would buy a ticket at the ticket office. By the way, the ticket costs 500 roubles. (it's about 8.5$)

The island itself is not very large in length. I had a feeling that its length is not more than 6 kilometers. On the whole length of the island are placed objects of wooden architecture. This is the house of the peasants, brought from all around the Onega Lake. In the middle of the island there is a beautiful church with a bell tower. I already made a short post about it.

Passing a little south from this church, the Kizhi churchyard becomes visible.

Nowadays a graveyard is called a graveyard, and long ago in the Russian North this word was used to designate a rural district, in the main village of which a church was built. So in Kizhi appeared two churches: Preobrazhenskaya (Transfiguration ) and Pokrovskaya. When lightning struck the building of the old Transfiguration Church, the village gathering decided to build a new one, the best ever. For ten years carpenters worked in Kizhi. The legend names only one of the masters - Nestor, who finished the work and threw an axe in Onega Lake with the words: "There was never such a one - and there will be no more!". Twenty-two domes of the Transfiguration Church adorned the world in 1714.

---

Church of the Transfiguration

The Church of the Transfiguration consists of three octagonal log cabins - "octagons", stacked on top of each other and decreasing upwards in the proportion of 18 m - 6 m - 3 m. Four "prirub" - four-walled extensions are added to the lower tier on the sides of the world. Such a composition gives the church a pyramidal aspiration. In the XVIII century it was one of the tallest buildings in Russia - 37 meters. The main decoration of the church - 22 domes of different sizes, installed on the "barrels" - the roof, repeating the silhouettes of the domes. Carpenters connected the system of protection against water and architectural elements in one unit, providing the building with security in the harsh climate of the northern island.
The most complicated construction of the Church of the Transfiguration was carried out only with axes. A sharp cut from the impact of the ax does not tear the tree like a saw, does not allow the wooden logs to absorb water. It is believed that the construction of the Transfiguration Church did not use nails. Indeed, only the scales of the ploughshare covering the glazes are attached with nails (at first wooden nagels, and later forged ones). Northern architects understood the beauty of the tree. The lemons for covering the domes were made from aspen - this sort of wood eventually takes on mirror properties. Placed at different angles, the scales are cast silver in the white nights, then they flash with a bright fire at sunrise, they turn blue as the northern sky.

Info from thi site

---

The Intercession Church

This temple is "winter" (that is, heated), service is conducted from October 1 until Easter. The Intercession Church in Kizhi was erected near the Transfiguration. It was built half a century later - in 1764. The nameless architect had to answer the question: what should be the new temple, so as not to get lost next to the twenty-two-headed miracle of the Transfiguration Church? The solution was found in some "subordination" of the Intercession Church: it complements the Preobrazhenskaya, echoes it, meets with a peculiar architectural echo. Eight chapters of the Intercession Church surround the ninth, the central. The domes of this church are distinguished by expressiveness, subtle proportions and at the same time they are modest and do not obscure the greatness of the main church of the Savior-Kizhi Podvorye - the Church of the Transfiguration. The Church of the Transfiguration is pyramidal, while Pokrovskaya, as if balancing it compositionally, expands upwards in the upper part of the octagon and ends with a smooth pile.

Tented bell tower

The belfry was built in 1863 on the site of the old tent tower, which was "hidden behind the dilapidated" in 1862. The draft and estimates of the new bell tower were considered by the Provincial Construction Committee in 1854 on the proposal of the Dean of the Blessed Stefan Romanovsky. In 1872, I. I. Koposhev presented a project for rebuilding the bell tower "in connection with the inability to approve its octagon". In 1874, work was carried out on rebuilding the bell tower, apparently, its upper part. In 1900, as a result of the repair, the policemen were dismantled, forming a cornice belt around the perimeter of the quadrangle in the level of the second floor, and decorative pediments on the tents of the tent.

Info from thi site

---