ARCHITECTURE
wooden architecture — research, maintenance and restoration

The Church of the Intercession is one of three structures within the Kizhi pogost, and can be characterized as among the group of multi-domed churches. The planning concept of the enfilade is the following: an anteroom (or inner porch, called ‘seni’), a refectory, the church (an oratory) and the altar. This is a traditional design almost the same as the Church of the Epiphany in the village of Chelmuzhi which was built in 1641.

This elongated polygonal log building has walls of an irregular-pentahedron for the altar on the east. The elongated part of the building, in which are located the anteroom and the refectory, is covered with a gable roof. The central portion of the church is log construction with a quadrangle (square) base that is topped by an octagon of log walls. The uppermost seven layers of logs in the walls of the octagon corbel out in a curved shape that culminates in the roof eaves.

This central octahedron is capped with hip-roof that features eight roof-slope-segments on which eight onion-domes are set — each dome is atop a small octahedron of hewn log walls. The apex of the hip roofs, at the center of the octagon is crowned with another octagonal log-wall structure that is capped with a ninth onion dome that is larger than the eight satellite domes.

The 5-sided altar portion of the church is covered with a barrel-roof crowned with a single onion-shaped dome. On the opposite end of the church, is a porch with one flight of steps supported by carved four-sided log columns. This porch-entry has an asymmetrical gable roof (one eave is lower than the other) that joins the main structure on the west. Decorative roofing is found on the porch, the octahedron and the quadrangle base. All door openings, internal and external, are set on the longitudinal central axis.

The floors of the anteroom, refectory, and the church proper are constructed of half-log flitches that have been scribe-fitted to each other along their lengths. The half-logs alternate the orientation of their small and large ends to balance the natural taper of the logs and to keep the floor regular in appearance.

Twin windows in the southern and northern facades admit light to each part of the Church of the Intercession; one twin is in the anteroom and the altar, two in the church (the oratory) and the refectory. Decorative window trim (shutters, head and sill pieces) has been lost; but there are plentiful signs in the exterior surfaces of the log walls that reveal a triangle above each window and a semi-circle below.

In front of the altar is a low solea with a round dais in the center. On each side there are two kliroses — a decani and a cantoris — that feature blank walls made up of thin planks and boards ornamented with carvings. The reconstruction was performed by A. Opolovnikov.

The upper part of the exterior of the central octahedron is encircled with a decorative zigzag belt of gutters. At first glance these might appear somewhat irregular, but the rise of each is nearly identical. Those gutters that span a log wall corner have a run that accommodates the exterior shape of the log wall at corners. This means that the gutters have a common rise, but have two slopes: one slope for mid-wall gutters, and a somewhat less-steep slope at gutters that span over log wall corners. A spout at the bottom of each pair of gutters directs water away from the log walls.

Fascia boards on the Church feature alternating triangular and rectangular carvings coupled with a fretwork of semi-circles and circles on the edge. The ‘towel’ elements and endings of fascia boards are ornamented with fretwork featuring solar symbols, circles, and trapezoidal drops. The Orthodox cross is carved on the fascia board above the anteroom.

The iconostasis that is currently displayed was assembled between 1956–1959, and includes Zaonezhye icons of the 17–19 th Centuries. The icons are set on the vertical ‘tyablo’ — beams ornamented with floral pattern. Some of the original icons mentioned in the inventories for the 19 th Century have been lost.