Kizhi

  A small island, 8 km long and less than 1,5 wide, is washed by the Onega waters. It is mostly covered with meadows, a thin forest belt borders its shores; there are also marshes with willow bushes. Great elm-trees feature the scenery. In the remote past it was a site of pagan practices that’s why it was settled very early. The island’s main architectural landmark is the Transfiguration Church built in 1714, without a single nail. (The few nails you can see today remain from the restoration work done in the 1960s.) This strikingly beautiful structure crowned with 22 cupolas seems to be hovering in the air in any weather, whether the lake is claim and peaceful and its surface smooth or it is rough and the waves violently break on the shore. The church cupolas made of aspen wood gleam in the sunlight in daytime and the moonlight at night. The Transfiguration Church houses a fine collection of iconostases (altar screens).
In 1951 the island became an open - air museum of Old Russian wooden architecture. Best wooden constructions have been transferred here from nearby and distant villages. Noteworthy is St. Lazarus’ Church, which, according to legend, was built by the monk Lazarus, the founder of the Murom monastery. He died in 1391, which means that it is the oldest wooden church extant in Russia. It is very small: the nave is only 3 m long while the porch and altar parts are simply tiny. Other relics of the past located here are two wooden houses, two windmills and traditional Russian Bathhouses, which stand on the shore.
In summer-time exhibitions of crafts, performances of the museum folk group and concerts of bell chimes are held on the island which was inscribed on the UNESCO world cultural and natural heritage list in 1990.