On Kizhi Island in Lake Onega, in Russia’s Republic of Karelia, the Church of the Transfiguration was begun in 1714 to replace a church destroyed by lightning. It rises 37 meters with 22 cascading domes, making it one of the tallest wooden buildings in northern Europe. Its main frame of Scots pine uses no nails: carpenters scribe fitted each log to the one below, packed moss between layers, and locked the corners with interlocking joints, cutting with axes that seal wood fibers against rot. The roof and domes do use about 180,000 nails holding 60,000 aspen shingles that weather to a metallic silver. Next door stands the heated Church of the Intercession, expanded to nine domes by 1764, where the congregation worshipped from October 1 until Easter.

By the late 1990s, 3D scans and fungal studies showed rotting lower logs and a dangerously leaning central octagon. From 1999 to 2014 restorers built an internal steel frame, jacked up the upper levels, and replaced or repaired the lower crowns zone by zone. Every log was numbered, photographed, and laser scanned first. About 30 percent of the wood was replaced with winter-cut Karelian pine dried on the island for years, and new pieces were left visibly distinct from the originals.

• Legend says the unnamed master builder threw his single axe into Lake Onega and declared no church would ever match it
• The belfry was rebuilt in 1862, 1874, and 1900 after repeated weather damage
• The 300 meter log fence marks holy ground and was never meant for defense
• The four-level iconostasis holds 102 icons from the 17th to 19th centuries
• Hidden steel ties, sensors, lighting, and radiant heating now let the summer church function year round