Kizhi Island on the Volga River

Kizhi Island Cruise Stop

Amazing Wooden Russian Christian Orthodox Churches

Today is a visit to the small island called Kizhi Island in the middle of Lake Onega.  Here there is a small village which is actually an open-air museum featuring an authentic peasant village and churches made of wood with no nails.  Again, it’s raining, but we trek on regardless and it’s worth it because these buildings are really remarkable.  The island is about 4 miles long.  I borrowed the map from the web.

kizhi-map Kizhi Island Russian Orthodox Wooden Church

These churches on Kizhi Island (Church of the Transfiguration – the larger one used in summer – and Church of the Intercession – the smaller one used in winter) and the peasant houses here are all made of wood using only axes as tools. The main crafter of the churches supposedly used only one axe for the whole construction, which he threw into the lake upon completion with the words “there was not and will be not another one to match it”.  (Wikipedia: Kizhi Island Russian Orthodox Church.)

These amazing structures were created as the Russian Christian Orthodox Church spread to the northernmost reaches of Russia, where there were many small villages scattered over a wide area.

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The Russian Orthodox Christian Church said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox Christian churches in the world  Among Christian churches, the Russian Orthodox Church is second only to the Roman Catholic Church in terms of numbers of followers.  (Wikipedia: Russian Orthodox Christian Church).

Here’s a windmill, but the fun thing about this is that it is built sitting on that long beam – so it can be turned to face into the wind as needed.  The Kizhi Island people hooked ropes to the beam and using logs set into the ground were able to turn it fairly easily. The story is that it can be turned by a man and a horse, or 2 men, or 1 Russian woman.  A bit of Kizhi Island Russian humor there.

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We thought these Kizhi Island fences were wonderful.  They are slanted like that to better withstand the weight of the snow. If they were horizontal, they would quickly collapse, but this way the weight is distributed along the length of the pole and then into the ground.  And it snows quite a bit here.

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These shots are of a typical Kizhi Island peasant house interior.  First the stove (above):  The stove was not vented to the outside. Instead, ceilings were high and the smoke gathered up near the ceiling.  It eventually made its way outside via one small pipe. We wondered about smoke inhalation, but oh well.  Children and older folks slept on top of the stove.  The room on the left below was the ‘nice’ room where the fancy stuff was kept.

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The loom was stored somewhere out of the way and only brought out during Lent each year – so the woman of the house was expected to make ALL the cloth needed for the whole family for the whole year during the 40 days of Lent – they often worked 12-14 hours a day doing this.  In addition to their other jobs, of course.

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This is really the hay loft and is located on the same second story as the kitchen.  Kizhi Island inhabitants kept their animals downstairs and the family lived upstairs. This made it easier to feed the animals – you didn’t have to go outside – and the heat from the animals below helped warm the upstairs.

This was used for tools, sleigh storage and they stored all the hay up here too.  Horses pulled loads of hay up this ramp to the second floor where it was spread out.  The logs that constituted the floor could be easily moved to make a hole to push it down to the animals below.

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Here are both churches and the bell tower shown together. The church on the left has been closed and under renovation for years and it will take years more. They are using a Swedish system where a framework has been placed in and around the building to lift it up and then they examine every single part, every log, every joint and replace anything that needs replacing.  Because it is all stacked (log cabin style), you have to start from the bottom.

Incidentally, all these buildings are set on loose stone foundations – no mortar or ‘glue’ to hold it together at all – because that allows the building to breathe and they last longer in this weather.  There is a better picture of the on the Kizhi website – in the sunshine with blue sky..  The shingles on the cupolas is aspen and it changes color depending on the light hitting it – from grey to silver to a light pink.

The smaller church (the Church of the Intercession) is open and is functional.  It celebrates the time when Constantinople (center of the Russian Christian Orthodox faith) was under siege and Mary (mother of Jesus) appeared over the city and spread her veil and the enemy ran away (hence the ‘intercession’ part).  It is covered with icons on the interior.  We were lucky enough to come in when 3 monks were chanting in beautiful harmony.

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Here is a quick movie of the entire Kizhi Island episode on shore…

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Bye for now!

Carol & JB

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Russian Orthodox Christian Church Kizhi Island, Russia

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