A Manchester City fan attends the trophy ceremony after the end of the Soccer Club World Cup final match between Manchester City FC and Fluminense FC at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Friday, December 22, 2023. Manchester City won 4-0. (Photo by Manu Fernandez/AP Photo)

New York Yankees' Domingo Germán, center, is doused by teammates after he pitched a perfect game against the Oakland Athletics in a baseball game in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, June 28, 2023. The Yankees won 11-0. (Photo by Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)

Santa Claus helps close out the "100 Year Anniversary of the 1911" by playing one chorus of "Jingle Bells" with the Colt 1911 Series 80 Government model. Ammo is .45 ACP Winchester 230 gr FMJ, approximately 98 rounds.

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.

Roma's Gianluca Mancini scores his team's goal in the 1-0 Rome derby victory over Lazio at Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy on April 6, 2024. (Photo by Alberto Lingria/Reuters)