The Beautiful Wooden Churches of North Russia

These beautiful but depleted, centuries old wooden churches were captured through the lenses by Richard Davies . Richard was inspired by the works of Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876 - 1942) a well known artist, stage designer and illustrator of Russian Folk Tales, who drew attention to the condition of the wooden churches through a series of photographs published in a 1904 article in the World of Art Magazine. Seeing these beautiful postcards inspired Richard to travel to the Russian North in 2002 to find out which churches had survived. Further trips have followed every year. Many churches have been lost: some have been left to rot; some have been destroyed by lightning; countless others by ignorance, spite and neglect. One church was hit by a reversing tractor - it tumbled like a pack of cards. “There is however much to celebrate.”, Richard writes. “Although the churches that remain are in varying states of decay and despite their neglect and the wrecking of their interiors, these extraordinary structures have a spiritual presence which commands respect even in the absence of their gilded icons.” Richard Davies now holds exhibition to help raise public awareness of the plight of these wonderful buildings, and encourage restoration work on them.