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.

An electric scooter for rent covered with snow stands on street after a snowfall at a residential area in Moscow, Russia, 07 April 2025. (Photo by Maxim Shipenkov/EPA/EFE)

Volunteers use flour to clean birds following an oil spill caused by an incident involving two tankers damaged in a storm in the Kerch Strait, in the village of Vityazevo near the Black Sea resort of Anapa, Russia on December 20, 2024. (Photo by Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters)

A photograph taken on November 20, 2021 shows the barberry berries with water drops after a rain in the garden outside Moscow. (Photo by Yuri Kadobnov/AFP Photo)

In this two photo combination picture, the Eiffel Tower with its usual lighting at left, and after the lighting was switched off at right, at the occasion of the Earth Hour, in Paris, France, Saturday March 28, 2015. This Saturday, 28 March 8:30 p.m. local time, individuals, businesses, cities and landmarks around the world are switching off their lights for one hour to focus attention on climate change. (Photo by Remy de la Mauviniere/AP Photo)

A Vietnamese cosplayer poses as police officer character from the game during the League of Legends (LOL) Mid-Season Invitational 2019 play-in group stage, in GG Stadium, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam May 5, 2019. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

Russian Il-76 military transport aircrafts fly in formation during a rehearsal for the flypast, which marks the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Moscow, Russia on May 4, 2020. The traditional large-scale Victory Day military parade across Red Square was postponed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID 19). (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

A woman takes pictures as she stands on the top of a Greek Orthodox Church while the sun sets in the Aegean Sea, in Santorini, Greece's Cyclades island, on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. (Photo by Petros Giannakouris/AP Photo)