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.

A three-year-old girl smokes a cigar during the Saint Simon celebrations in San Andres Itzapa, Guatemala, on October 28, 2019. Thousands believe that the saint helps people find work, solves family problems and cures illnesses. (Photo by Orlando Estrada/AFP Photo)

Guatemalan wrestlers and relatives carry the coffin of late eighteen-year-old wrestler Laisha Cameros, known as “La Hija del Zorro” who was shot dead during an assault two days ago, during her funeral at the General Cemetery in Guatemala City on February 11, 2019. Cameros was a victim of an armed attack at Limon neighborhood where Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs operate. (Photo by Johan Ordóñez/AFP Photo)

A member of the Palace staff arranges Queen Victoria's Stuart Ball costume which is part of an exhibition to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria (1819–1901) this year at Buckingham Palace in London, Tuesday, April 2, 2019. The exhibition, Queen Victoria's Palace at the Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace from 20 July – 29 September 2019, will tell the story of her 62-year reign and her life at Buckingham Palace, which began when she ascended to the throne in June 1837. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

Nepalese Hindu priests perform rituals during Janai Purnima festival at Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, August 18, 2016. During this festival Hindus take holy baths and perform annual change of the Janai, a sacred cotton string worn around their chest or tied on the wrist, in the belief that it will protect and purify them. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

A man bathes in an ice hole in the Neva River St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, February 10, 2021. The temperature in St. Petersburg is –15C ( 5 °F). (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Young Japanese women dressed in colourful Kimonos take a photo of themselves as they gather for a ceremony marking the “Coming of Age Day” at the Toshimaen Amusement Park in Tokyo, Japan, 11 January 2016. The Coming of Age Day is the day to celebrate young people who turn 20 years old while the age of 20 is considered the beginning of adulthood and is the minimum legal age for voting, drinking and smoking in Japan. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/EPA)

A worker unloads fish from a taxi boot at a fish market in Kolkata, India on February 5, 2018. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)