Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill releases a white dove after a service marking the Holiday of Annunciation at the Kremlin in Moscow on April 7, 2023. In Christianity, Annunciation celebrates the revelation to the Virgin Mary that she would bear a son, Jesus. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP Photo)

A gallery staff member walks past Fleeting Monument (1985) by artist Cornelia Parker, one of the works on display at Yorkshire Sculpture Parks Longside Gallery as part of the “Making It: Sculpture in Britain 1977-1986” exhibition on March 27, 2015 in Barnsley, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/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.

UK Love Island’s Megan Barton Hanson seen attending boohooMAN – VIP dinner at The Shard on September 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by WENN)

A rider rears up on his horse while surrounded by a cheering crowd during the traditional Fiesta of San Joan (Saint John) in downtown Ciutadella, on the Spanish Balearic Island of Menorca, June 23, 2014. The riders of the horses are representatives of ancient Ciutadella society – nobility, clergy, craftsmen and farmers. (Photo by Enrique Calvo/Reuters)

Rays of the misty sunrise swathe Christ Church in the village of Brockham in Surrey, UK on September 29, 2025. Colder temperatures are expected in the early part of the day with mist and fog clearing later in the south. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/The Times)

Protesters march against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., June 1, 2020. (Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters)

A mock-up of a missile with the inscription reading as “Towards Washington. Threatening U.S. territory is the path to victory” is seen on the roof of a car parked in front of Saint Isaac's Cathedral in Saint Petersburg on January 12, 2025. (Photo by Olga Maltseva/AFP Photo)