Wooden architecture

Across Russia there are thousands of villages where the main construction material is still wood, unsurprisingly for a country that has a quarter of the world’s trees and whose forest cover is larger than the entire continental USA. Many of the houses and churches in these villages are built in the traditional Russian style, using logs instead of planks, no nails, and moss for insulation. The oldest surviving log churches in the country are from the 15th century and are still in use in remote villages hidden away in the 

taiga forest where people continue to build in this style today.

In the Arctic, the very best region for traditional wooden architecture is Archangel Province (Arkhangelskaya Oblast). Until the 16th Century, this was the easternmost extent of Arctic Russian territory. Further east there were only indigenous peoples, who had no wooden architectural traditions. Archangel Province’s villages have many beautiful examples of traditional wooden churches, houses, windmills, wells and more.

Across Russia there are thousands of villages where the main construction material is still wood, unsurprisingly for a country that has a quarter of the world’s trees and whose forest cover is larger than the entire continental USA. Many of the houses and churches in these villages are built in the traditional Russian style, using logs instead of planks, no nails, and moss for insulation. The oldest surviving log churches in the country are from the 15th century and are still in use in remote villages hidden away in the taiga forest where people continue to build in this style today.

In the Arctic, the very best region for traditional wooden architecture is Archangel Province (Arkhangelskaya Oblast). Until the 16th Century, this was the easternmost extent of Arctic Russian territory. Further east there were only indigenous peoples, who had no wooden architectural traditions. Archangel Province’s villages have many beautiful examples of traditional wooden churches, houses, windmills, wells and more.

 

Wooden architecture tours in Arctic Russia