Princess Charlene of Monaco and Prince Albert II of Monaco kiss on the balcony after the civil ceremony of the Royal Wedding of Prince Albert II of Monaco to Charlene Wittstock at the Prince's Palace on July 1, 2011 in Monaco. The ceremony took place in the Throne Room of the Prince's Palace of Monaco, followed by a religious ceremony to be conducted in the main courtyard of the Palace on July 2. With her marriage to the head of state of Principality of Monaco, Charlene Wittstock has/will become Princess consort of Monaco and gain the title, Princess Charlene of Monaco. Celebrations including concerts and firework displays are being held across several days, attended by a guest list of global celebrities and heads of state. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/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.

Cosplayer Leah Panos as Snow White donates blood at San Diego Blood Bank on July 25, 2020 in San Diego, California. With the cancellation of 2020 Comic-Con International due to the coronavirus pandemic, the San Diego Blood Bank moved their 44th Annual Comic-Con's Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive to encompass all of their locations and mobile units. (Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)

A girl plays in a water-jets fountain in Moscow, Russia, 23 June 2021. The temperature exceeded 36 degrees Celsius in Moscow. The weather in Moscow broke the temperature record high of the day, held since 1948, when meteorologists recorded +33.6. (Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA/EFE)

People look out at the city among 30,375 square feet of mirrors at SUMMIT One Vanderbilt in New York on May 22, 2024. The Parade of Ships is seen from SUMMIT One Vanderbilt in NYC as part of the Fleet Week Celebration events. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP Photo)

Nicole Kidman arrives for the world premiere of "Holland" at the Paramount Theatre during the South by Southwest Conference and Festival on Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP Photo)

Anja Rubik poses as she arrives for the screening of the film “Dolor Y Gloria (Pain and Glory)” at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 17, 2019. (Photo by Stephane Mahe/Reuters)

A steam traction engine with a broken rear axle in Pall Mall, London. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images). November 1923