Kizhi is a narrow strip of island on Lake Onega in the Republic of Karelia, Russia.
The most famous among them is the Kizhi Pogost.
The Kizhi Pogost enclosure holds two wooden churches and an octagonal bell tower built during the 18th-century.
Many thousands of logs were brought for construction from the mainland, a complex logistical task in that time.
All structures were made of scribe-fitted horizontal logs, with interlocking corners joinery.
The basis of the structure is an octahedral frame with four two-stage side attachments called “prirub”.
The eastern prirub has a pentagonal shape and contains the altar.
Two smaller octagons of similar shape are mounted on top of the main octagon.
The roofs were made of spruce planks and the domes are covered in aspen.
The design of this elaborate superstructure also provided an efficient system of ventilation to preserve the structure from decay.
It was not uncommon in Russia to have paired churches, for summer and winter.
In the 19th century, the churches was decorated with batten and some parts were covered with steel.
Some of the original iconostasis was also replaced and lost.
It was restored to its original design in the 1950s.
