A group of people wearing Santa Claus hats and swimming suits participate in the 13th charity Great Santa Claus Run in downtown Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, December 11, 2016. (Photo by Balazs Mohai/MTI via AP Photo)

A Chinese vendor wears a rooster hat as he smokes a cigarette at his souvenir stall at a fair at Temple of Earth, on the eve of Chinese New Year February 8, 2005 in Beijing, China. Chinese started February 8, to celebrate the New Year of the Rooster. (Photo by Andrew Wong/Getty Images)

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.

In this Wednesday, April 12, 2017, photo, waitresses wait outside a restaurant in Pyongyang, North Korea. A generational divide is quietly growing in North Korea, often hidden behind relentless propaganda. On the streets there are young women in not-quite mini-skirts and teenage boys with baseball hats cocked sideways, K-pop style. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

A mural depicting Prime Minister Scott Morrison wearing an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, orange lei and Santa Claus hat while holding a cocktail by artist Scott Marsh is seen on a wall in Sydney, Wednesday, December 25, 2019. Morrison was under pressure since taking a much criticized family vacation to Hawaii during the wildfire crisis.(Photo by Steven Saphore/AAP Images via AP Photo)

A man hugs his monitor lizard who is wearing a Christmas hat on December 25, 2021 in Bangkok, Thailand. Monitor lizard enthusiasts gather on Christmas Day for a garden party at the Somtum Khun Daeng restaurant and cafe to share their appreciation for their monitor lizards. The event for owners of this controversial Thai pet included important facts and information about monitor lizard care as well as prizes for those who brought their lizard with them. (Photo by Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images)

A member of a rival team walks during an annual carnival battle with oranges in the northern Italian town of Ivrea February 15, 2015. Dressed up as Middle Age kings' guards, a group of men ride in a horse-drawn carriage and pelt “foot soldiers” with oranges as thousands of people gather to re-enact a Middle Age battle when the townsfolk of Ivrea overthrew an evil king. In a strange twist, instead of swords and cross bows, these days the weapons of choice are oranges. (Photo by Max Rossi/Reuters)

An Alitalia plane approaches to land as starlings fly at Fiumicino international airport in Rome October 14, 2013. Italy will have to notify a planned government-led 500-million-euro bailout of near-bankrupt airline Alitalia to EU regulators who will then assess whether the measure complies with EU state aid rules, the European Commission said on Monday. (Photo by Max Rossi /Reuters)