WOODEN ARCHITECTURE

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     The Russian North is rightfully considered to be a treasure chest of wooden and stone architecture. Wooden architecture was the only type of construction for many centuries. Its development in the northern land was determined by the abundance of building material such as spruce, pine and larch. The wood made it possible to construct not only solid structures that met the Pomors’ living conditions, but also buildings that are artistically beautiful. Houses and household building, temples and belfries, fortresses, bridges and crosses — everything was constructed using wood.
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     The architects of the north were Pomors. Their main tool was an axe, which was used to build (or «cut» — old Russian version) both temples and houses. Quite a lot of skill and ability were needed to construct the whole thing with just an axe without using any other carpentry tools. Construction techniques have been honed for centuries and were passed down from one generation to the next.<br>
     There is general similarity of the monuments in northern wooden architecture, although different districts of Arkhangelsk region are characterized by their unique structural elements and decorative details. Very few monuments of folk wooden architecture of Russia have survived to this day and most of them have been preserved in the Russian North. Each district is a preserved area of wooden architecture.<br>
     In Kimzha village (Mezen District), where peasant houses and household buildings (barns, banyas (steam baths), windmills) and memorial crosses have been preserved.
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    <img width="48%" alt="ey7vcegefljek5wgf2nwbylsuketkc6f.jpg" src="/upload/medialibrary/451/fl2qmd0s1d858szginiyy2v6g6ayfu10.jpg" height=""> <img width="48%" alt="ztz9syjlqqmptcvufqmytirpcz7uv7jp.jpg" src="/upload/medialibrary/70a/v1rjg88qqfinzag3q0gu1c7r2yx6jvnu.jpg" height=""><br>
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     Pinezhye (Pinega District), where even today one can find peasant houses of ancient construction and barn towns.<br>
     The area of upper reaches of the Onega River, famous for monuments of wooden church architecture such as the Kozhskii Pogost with the cubed five-domed Klimentovskaya Church, the tent-roofed Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the many-domed cubed wooden Vladimirskaya Church in Podporozhye village.
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     The Pomor village of Nyonoksa, the main attraction of which is the wooden church ensembles: Trinity Church, St. Nicholas Church and belfry. The Trinity Church is the only preserved wooden five-domed church in Russia.<br>
     The village of Cherevkovo (Krasnoborsk District), has preserved civic wooden architecture: houses of peasants and merchants, trading shops, barns and warehouses.
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     The reserve of Russian wooden architecture is Chukhcherma’s foothold on the Northern Dvina, where many heads of the Ilyinsk church, bell tower and Vasilyev church were built.
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     Residential complexes and church buildings from all around Arkhangelsk region have been recreated in the museum of wooden architecture «Malye Korely». It is worth mentioning that all the buildings of northern architecture were distinguished by their natural blend with northern nature.
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<i><span style="color: #acacac;">Photo credits to: A. Onuchin, N. Veprev, A. Kovalev, A. Samokhvalov </span></i>
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    <i><span style="color: #acacac;">The information was prepared by the staff of the Arkhangelsk Regional Scientific Library named after N.A. Dobrolyubova, more information on the website </span></i><a href="http://cultnord.ru/"><i><span style="color: #acacac;">http://cultnord.ru/</span></i></a><br>
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