Saint Nicholas church in Unezhma village: history and architecture

The article deals with a relatively unknown monument of wooden architecture - the Saint Nicholas Church (1824) in Unezhma village of the Onega District in the Arkhangelsk Region. The monument is extremely hard to reach, and it is located in a unique natural environment. The church stands out due to its architecture; however, it is poorly studied in terms of its construction history, architectural and artistic features, and interconnections with regional traditions. The church is described together with the bell tower built in 1792 as an architectural complex existing for more than four hundred years. The study is based on historical archival sources and on-site survey results. The authors traced the construction history of the Saint Nicholas Church and identified its construction stages. The appearance of the building at each construction stage was substantiated and presented through graphical reconstructions. The building was compared to similar structures found in the Onega Pomorye, and its specific architectural features were exposed. The building was also studied from the structural point of view. Based on the results of the comparison with similar structures and the analysis of their historical changes, the author made some conclusions about the original design of the church top. Historical data on the preceding church were interpreted and used to create its graphical reconstruction, together with the analysis of local architectural traditions. Thus, the article brings to light the construction history and development of the Unezhma church complex. The architecture of the Saint Nicholas Church and the bell tower has its distinctive features, but it ultimately conforms to the church-building traditions of the Onega Pomorye.