More than 120 churches renovated over ten years in Russia’s north

Moscow, April 4, 2017

Photo: thebigtreesociety.co.uk

Participants in the “Common Cause: The Rebirth of Wooden Churches of the North” project have carried out preventative and restorative work in 127 churches over the course of ten years, stated project manager Alexei Yakovlev during an academic conference dedicated to restoring such churches in the Russian North, reports TASS.

Work was carried out in twenty-four churches and chapels last year, and thirty-five objects were examined for further restoration. “In all, over ten years we have examined over 350 chapels and churches, 127 of which needed emergency or repair work. There are about 700 churches in the North, most of which require repair or restoration,” Yakovlev said.

One of the program’s problems is attracting volunteers, Yakovlev stated. The project’s 2016 trips involved more than 500 people, and a carpentry school has trained 110 people, but “Of course, this is a drop in the ocean,” according to the administrator. A nationwide government movement is needed, in his opinion, to save the country’s monuments of wooden and stone architecture.

The “Common Cause” project was created ten years ago as a public volunteer movement for the preservation and revival of the churches and chapels of Russia’s northern regions. Volunteers work together with professional architects and restorers. The project has received high praise from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.