While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

Trees in a park are illuminated with a red light as a part of an art project in Timmendorfer Strand, northern Germany Wednesday, October 26, 2016. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Dharma the Sumatran tiger yawns as members of the public return to Edinburgh Zoo as it opens for the first time following the easing of Scottish Governments lockdown restrictions on June 29, 2020 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Outdoor visitor attractions in Scotland have reopened along with many non-essential retailers after more than three months in lockdown, as Scotland moves into phase 2 of its “route map” for easing coronavirus restrictions. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)

This is the moment a lamb appears to be doing kung fu as it plays with its friends in a field overlooking Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset on April 11, 2022. (Photo by Donna White/Bournemouth News)

Supporters of Haiti's former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide march to his home to congratulate him at his 69th birthday, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on July 15, 2022. (Photo by Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters)

Smoke and flames rise over a warehouse storing ammunition for multiple rocket launcher systems at a military base in the town of Kalynivka in Vinnytsia region, Ukraine September 27, 2017. Ukrainian officials say they have evacuated more than 30,000 people after a fire and ammunition explosions, at the military base on Tuesday. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Cloud inversion taken at Sunrise in Mam Tor, Derbyshire, UK on August 30, 2016. (Photo by David Zdanowicz/REX Shutterstock)

Team GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson in action during the women’s heptathlon shot put, where she recorded a personal best at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on August 8, 2024. (Photo by David Levene/The Guardian)