Olivier Giroud of AC Milan scores the second goal during the Serie A TIM match between AC Milan and AS Roma – Serie A TIM at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on January 14, 2024 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters)

A dog attends the Annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade in New York City, U.S., October 19, 2025. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

Kelsea Ballerini performs at the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., November 19, 2025. (Photo by Seth Herald/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.

View of the “Sunset Lake” hot spring with it's unique colors caused by brown, orange and yellow algae-like bacteria called Thermophiles, that thrive in the cooling water turning the vivid aqua-blues to a murkier greenish brown, in the Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming on June 1, 2011. Yellowstone National Park, was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Grant on March 1, 1872. The park is located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, though it also extends into Montana and Idaho and was the first national park in the world. It is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially the Old Faithful Geyser. (Photo by Mark Ralston/AFP Photo)

A competitor laughs while taking part in the office chair race ISU-1 Grand Prix in Tainan, southern Taiwan April 24, 2016. It was the first time such a race was held in Tainan, as part of the “ISU-1 GP” (Grand Prix) that began in Japan in 2010, according to businesses on Jhengsing Street and Haian Road in the city's West Central District and the city's Tourism Bureau, which organized the event. The fastest rider only took six seconds to complete the 30-meter race. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

A bodyboarder rides a wave at Mackenzies Bay on May 1, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. A strong east-south-east swell has developed along the NSW coastline with waves between 6ft and 8ft expected to hit the coast for much of the weekend and into next week. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)