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.

David Bowie wears an eyepatch in red suit and guitar on blue background at Top Pop television studios in Holland while doing playback to his hit song Rebel Rebel in 1974. (Photo by Barry Schultz/Sunshine/REX Shutterstock)

Spectators watch from Canaveral National Seashore as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink satellites launches from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on October 6, 2020 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This is the 13th batch of satellites placed into orbit by SpaceX as part of a constellation designed to provide broadband internet service around the globe. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

A vendor sells fish at Central Market in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on December 13, 2020. The winters in Yakutsk are extremely cold and long and the summers short and warm, with temperatures sometimes rising above 30C. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)

A woman attends the annual Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival on Fifth Avenue, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in New York City, U.S., April 4, 2021. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

A woman dressed up for Halloween travels on a Metro train in São Paulo, Brazil on October 30, 2017. (Photo by Cris Faga/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Vietnam's Pham Hong Anh in action during her single dance final during the Southeast Asian Games' DanceSport competition in Mabalacat, Philippines, December 1, 2019. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

New Year's Eve revellers from Asia with Australian flags and balloons in the shape of the new year 2020 in Sydney, Australia on December 31, 2019. (Photo by Richard Milnes/Rex Features/Shutterstock)