kizhi is an island in the northern part of the very large onega lake, in russia's province karelia, north of st. petersburg. it is about 6 km long and 1 km wide. in kizhi are unique religious buildings, and also a museum.
how to get there? first part - travelling with the night train from st. petersburg to petrozavods, which is the captial of karelia, in march 2012. and then a boat to kizhi? no! that was impossible, because the lake is still frozen in march.
actually i took a "hovercraft icecat", which is a product of the russian company "aerohod" in novgorod. this very powerful 'boat' can also move on snow and ice. it is steered by one driver, and can have up to 3 passengers - yet on that harsh day it was only me! the distance is 60 km, and it needed 3 to 4 hours to cover it. the driver had to check every now and then whether the ice is solid, and not too rough.
whole kizhi is now an open-air museum, and the main buildings are a unesco world heritage site. the map below shows the location of all the religious places, as well as other historic venues.
people have settled on kizhi since the 14th century, mainly farmers. in its prime time there were about 40 settlements. the first church is dated 1563. around 1750 mining became a growing industry, e.g., around petrozavods. the peasants from kizhi were forced to work there. an uprizing in 1770 was smashed. in the next 200 years kizhi's population went down, and when russia's government finally forbade farming, only few settlements remained. it was in 1951 the whole kizhi island was made an open-air museum, and all buildings on it are now protected.
unfortunately it wasn't pleasant at all during that day in march 2012. i didn't mind that it was truly cold, plus lots of snow - however, the grey and a bit foggy weather meant that decent photography was hardly possible, urghh. many of the taken pic's are nevertheless presented, because the buildings on kizhi are impressive, and unique anyway.
this is the core historic area on kizhi (see map above). it consists of two large churches and a large bell tower, built from 1694 to 1764, and partly rebuilt 100 years later. the whole area got a fence, sitting on a small wall, as protection against incursions.
during my visit, serious repairs and renovations were under way. the following image shows how it looks in summer. it is not a painting, it is made as a cross-stitch work on fabric.
and there is a coin with the kizhi perspective as well.
the largest and certainly most unique church in the kizhi pogost is named transfiguration church. it's 'roof' has 22 domes! here are a few pic's, outside and inside.
below is a handicraft model of this truly stunning building - not to be expected in the province karelia
the second church in the kizhi pogost is named intercession church (also called church of prophet of god's mother). it's 'roof' has 9 domes. two pic's:
installing the kizhi island as an open-air museum included to move several historic buildings from other areas in karelia to kizhi. also, a large museum facility was created, located in petrozavods, plus a section within the kizhi podost. thus of the thousands of items some can be seen there. here are just two:
regarding the location of these buildings, see the map above. the largest one is the chapel of the archangel michael,
another one is the church of resurrection of lazarus, which has only one tiny tower.
there are four houses on kizhi, all as museum facilities. this is the largest one:
and this the smallest one. (does the visitor bernd has a key? no, of course not.)
in 1930 even a windmill was built in kizhi! it doesn't work anymore, but did survive and is no a museum feature.
on an island settled for hundreds of years, there are naturally cemeteries as well. they are not part of the museum, they are just there.
they represent death, normal yet gloomy - - so at the end of the kizhi gallery is a pic of life - the brave visitor found a bike in the snow, and even used it, just briefly...
