Kizhi Pogost: Incredible Wooden Church

On March 12, 2015 by Tim Newman

“Kizhi churches” by User:MatthiasKabel – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Kizhi Pogost (Кижский Погост) is nothing short of miraculous; the wooden wonders were built in the 17th century and are still to be found standing defiantly on Kizhi island in the far west of Russia.

The ‘pogost’ refers to the area within a wooden fence where a number of wooden structures are built. The buildings are made of Scots pine and have managed to last from the 17th century until now. The most amazing fact of all is that there isn’t a single nail between the lot of them. Not one.

The most impressive of the structures is the Church of Transfiguration, its altar was laid in 1714 and it’s still used to this day (but only in the summer, because it gets pretty nippy in the winter; there’s no heating and only a proper numb-nut would start a fire in there).

No one knows who built the Church of Transfiguration. Legend has it that the main builder used just one axe for the whole construction, which he lobbed into the lake upon completion with the words:

“there was not and will be not another one to match it”.

True, true.

The church has 22 domes, count them, well, you won’t be able to see them all, but trust me, because I read it on Wikipedia. Twenty-two wooden domes, and remember – no nails. Just to be clear: there’s no glue or rivets either, or Sellotape, that should go without saying though I guess.

Look at the splendor: