Kizhi holidays

Beyond the main cities of Moscow and St Petersburg, Kizhi is one of Russia’s main tourist attractions. A Unesco world heritage site, this small island in Lake Onega features some of the world’s finest wooden buildings, ranging from windmills and barns to churches and houses. The principal sites are the Intercession Church, the bell tower and the Transfiguration Cathedral, which has 22 domes and is one of the largest wooden structures in the world. Next to this is the Intercession Church, or Winter Church, which was built in 1764. The exterior features 10 domes while the interior has a well-preserved iconostasis. The bell tower, which was built in 1874, has walls of horizontally fitted logs, though they are covered by exterior wooden planks and cannot be seen.