Russian wooden architecture

The architectural ensemble of the Kizhi Pogost (Karelia). On the left is the twenty-two-domed Church of Holy Transfiguration (1714) — the peak of Russian wooden architecture

The Russian wooden architecture (in Russian ру́сское деревя́нное зо́дчество, russkoe derevyannoye zodchestvo)[Note 1][1] is a traditional architectural movement in Russia,[2][3] that has stable and pronounced structural, technical, architectural and artistic features determined by wood as the main material.[2][4][5][6] Sometimes this concept includes wooden buildings of professional architecture, eclectic buildings combining elements of folk architecture and professional architecture,[2] as well as modern attempts to revive Old Russian carpentry traditions.[7] It is one of the most original phenomena of Russian culture. It is widespread from the Kola Peninsula to the Central Zone, in the Urals and Siberia;[8] a large number of monuments are located in the Russian North.

The structural basis of traditional Russian wooden architecture was a log house made of untrimmed wood. Wood carvings placed on structurally significant elements served as decoration. Among the traditional buildings are wooden cage, tent, step, cuboid and multi-domed churches, which together with peasant dwellings, household, fortress and engineering buildings defined the image of a traditional Russian settlement.

The origins of Russian wooden architecture go back to ancient Slavic architecture. Since the Ancient Russian history the religious wooden architecture was oriented on the Byzantine canon and adopted the features of stone temples. The highest development of Russian wooden architecture reached the Russian North in the 15th-18th centuries. In this region the traditions were preserved for the longest time, but even there the architecture could not escape the significant influence of the dominant architectural styles of baroque, classicism, eclecticism. In the 19th century, the motives of the Russian wooden architecture were applied in the Russian style. The heritage of wooden architecture is rapidly disappearing. Only a few religious buildings date back to the 14th-16th centuries. The oldest preserved residential buildings date back to the 18th century. According to experts, at the beginning of the 21st century, the situation with the preservation of monuments is catastrophic.


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  1. ^ Фасмер М. Этимологический словарь русского языка: В 4 т.: Пер. с нем. 2-е изд., стереотип. М. : Прогресс, 1986. V. II (Е — Муж). p. 102.
  2. ^ a b c Ополовников (1974, pp. 22–35)
  3. ^ Пермиловская А. Б. Церковная деревянная архитектура Русского Севера: традиции и православие // Вестник славянских культур. М., 2019. V. 53.
  4. ^ Деревянное зодчество: [Archive: 15 June 2024] // Большая российская энциклопедия: [in 35 vol.] / main ed. Ю. С. Осипов. М.: Большая российская энциклопедия, 2004—2017.
  5. ^ Малков (1997, p. 3)
  6. ^ Ушаков (2007, p. 7)
  7. ^ Ходаковский (2009, p. 14)
  8. ^ Березкин, Лев. Куда уходит страна дерева?: [Archive: 30 June 2019] // Санкт-Петербургские ведомости. 2018. № 180 (6289) (28 September).