Project

Constructed in 1774 on a rocky cape overlooking Lake Onega, Assumption Church is an elegant wooden structure with a distinctive nebo, or sky, a highly decorated painted ceiling made up of twenty panels surrounding the central tondo. The decorative framework was used for displaying painted icons and served as a symbolic representation of the heavens. (...)

Constructed in 1774 on a rocky cape overlooking Lake Onega, Assumption Church is an elegant wooden structure with a distinctive nebo, or sky, a highly decorated painted ceiling made up of twenty panels surrounding the central tondo. The decorative framework was used for displaying painted icons and served as a symbolic representation of the heavens. The tall and slender church continually served the religious needs of the local community until it was abandoned following the Russian Revolution. It was opened as a museum in the mid-1940s. In 1992, the historic building was re-consecrated as an Orthodox parish church.

Neglect, inadequate maintenance, developmental pressures, microorganism attacks, and rainwater have threatened the building. Since its construction, the church underwent only minor restorations, repairs, and maintenance. Prolonged and unchecked water infiltration slowly rotted the wooden structural framework. Although the small local congregation is dedicated to the preservation of the church, they lack the recourses for its preservation.