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The most fascinating example of wooden
architecture produced by Russian wood-carvers and carpenters Is the one located
on the small isle of Kizhi in the Onega lake. The isle is about five miles long
and one mile wide, and rises only a few feet above the water level. Because of
the low configuration of the ground one has the impression, approaching the
isle by boat, that the churches rise out of the lake. Deep in the forests of
the Russian north, simple men continued to build their log izbas and churches
the way they had for centuries. The basic unit of all their construction was
the "Klet-Sruba," the box-like construction formed by round logs
piled one on the top of the other, interlocking at the corners. In early times
the church differed from the izba in being higher, larger and having a taller,
two-sloped roof with a small cupola and a cross. The church also had another,
smaller interlocked klet on its eastern side for the alter, and sometimes
another "Klet" on the western side for the shed-like porch
"Seni." The oldest and most interesting known example of this
three-klets type is the Church of Saint Lazarus, moved to Kizhi in 1960 from
the former Murom Monastery located on the eastern shores of the lake Onega. The
entire combined length of the three klets is just over 24 feet, and they are
less than twelve feet high. The church dates from the 16th century, not from
the 14th as most Soviet art historians believed. There I, though, documentary
evidence that this "Granary" type of small wooden church was
mentioned, along with the "Tent-shaped type in the 14th century. Through
centuries of building, and by the ingenuity and fertile imaginations of Russian
peasant builders, they evolved into highly complicated structures that became,
at the same time, voluptuous and picturesque. First the tiny "Seni' were
replaced by a larger klet and turned into refectories (trapeznaya). Then to the
refectory ap porch was added. When the entire edifice was raised a few feet
above the ground, the builders added galleries, a parvis and single or twin
staircases (kriltsa). These annexes were often covered with an ogee-shaped
barrel (bochka) roof to make the structure more resistant to heavy snow falls;
sometimes the roof was crowned with a small decorative cupola with, of course,
a cross on top. Later not one but several bochkas and cupola appeared on the
main church structure, replacing the traditional tent-shaped or two-sloped roof
with just one cupola. The tent-shaped churches were always taller than the
rectangular and in all probability the earliest were built with a rectangular
base surmounted by an octagon (vosmeric an chetverike) and a pyramidal roof.
Fine examples of his construction are the Cathedral of the Assumption at the
village of Kemi and the churches of the Assumption at Kondopoga and of the
Intercession at Kizhi, all three dating from the 18th century.
The size of the rectangular churches was limited by the length of the available
logs. To overcome this handicap, the builders switched to the octagonal form
for the entire frame of the central part of the church. Thus with the same size
logs they considerably enlarged the floor space of the new churches. Usually to
make the church taller two smaller octagons were superimposed on the larges,
and the entire construction terminated with the pyramidal roof. The famous
church of the Transfiguration at Kizhi was built in this same way. According to
legend, its builder was a man known only by his Christian name of Nestor, and
we know that the church was completed in 1714. The longest timber he could find
was just over 21 feet long, so this became the length of the sides of the
bottom octagon. To make the church even larger and give it a cross-shaped form,
Nestor added a rectangular frame to the four main axis of the octagon, with the
one at the east serving as the altar. This new form of construction was named
"octagon with four annexes (projections)" "Vosmerik s chetirmia
prirubami."). There are three octagons, one on the top of the other, with
thirteen barrels (bothkas) and cupolas. The four rectangular annexes have one
projection each; in all there are eight barrels and cupolas. With the large
cupola on the top of the church, there are in all 23 cupolas. It is indeed a
masterpiece of wooden architecture, almost 115 feet tall and built without a
single nail. Here is a view of the church.
We have many more photos of all the churches at Kizhi Island, taken during our
tour in 2005.kizhi
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