Fog hangs over the east of the capital on a frosty Sunday morning on January 12, 2025 in London, UK. (Photo by David Levene/The Guardian)

Sunderland’s Granit Xhaka in action with AFC Bournemouth’s Bafode Diakite in Sunderland, UK on November 29, 2025. (Photo by Scott Heppell/Reuters)

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.

UK Love Island beauty Samira Mighty (L) seen arriving at Mahiki Kensington on November 16, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by CURLEY)

A dress rehearsal for the world premiere of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Luna at the Hippodrome in Birmingham, UK on October 2, 2024. (Photo by Elliott Franks/The Times)

A general view of the sunrise over Hawes, Wensleydale, UK on November 24, 2014. (Photo by Neil Squires/PA Wire)

Freida Pinto as Jas Mitra in Showtime's “Guerrilla”, 2016. (Photo by Sky UK Limited/SHOWTIME)

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