Completion is near on Monaco's tallest skyscraper ever, and its first new one since the 1980s. Fueled by a luxury-housing boom in the tax-haven nation, the Odeon Tower's so-called Sky Penthouse is expected to sell for more than any other apartment in the world has ever sold before. Photo: The five-story Sky Penthouse is expected to be complete in September 2015. The water slide extends from a dance floor in the residence down to a private infinity pool. (Photo by Tour Odeon)

Rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) visit as they wait to have lunch in El Diamante, Colombia, Friday, September 16, 2016. FARC rebels are gathering for a congress were delegates will debate and vote on the accord reached last month with the Colombian government to end five decades of war. (Photo by Ricardo Mazalan/AP Photo)

Two people sit in an ambulance waiting to be treated after a Grad rocket slammed into a shopping mall in Donetsk's Kubishevski district, in the eastern Ukraine, on October 8, 2014. At least two people were killed, and five were injured after some six Grad rockets hit the area. (Photo by John Macdougall/AFP Photo)

Festival goers pose for photographers on the third day of Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Somerset, England, Friday, June 28, 2019. Temperatures are expected to soar over the weekend as a heatwave hits parts of Europe, while the festival runs for five days and is one of the largest events of its kind in the world. (Photo by Joel C. Ryan/Invision/AP Photo)

Two children swim on the flood water after a widespread flash flood at Nalitabari sub district in Sherpur district, Bangladesh, 08 October 2024. According to Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) officials, at least 50,000 people remain stranded in five sub districts in Sherpur despite flood conditions improving. (Photo by EPA/EFE/Stringer)

Willy Adames #2 and Mike Yastrzemski #5 of the San Francisco Giants high five after the game against the San Diego Padres at Oracle Park on June 5, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Suzanna Mitchell/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images)

A Syrian man sells vegetables in front of a damaged tank in Homs, on December 20, 2024. Islamist-led rebels took Damascus in a lightning offensive on December 8, ousting president Bashar al-Assad and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria. (Photo by Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP Photo)

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.