Sacred landscape of rural historical settlements of the Russian North and the Arctic

Usov Aleksei Aleksandrovich ORCID: 0000-0002-0466-0124 PhD in Cultural Studies Researcher of the Scientific Center of Traditional Culture and Museum Preservation; N. Laverov Federal Center for Integrated Arctic Research of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 163020, Russia, Arkhangelsk region, Arkhangelsk, Nikolsky, 20 usov@fciarctic.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

The Russian North is a genuine "reserve" of wooden architecture. However, at present this statement is fully valid only for the territories of national parks and museum reserves, where individual monuments and entire architectural ensembles of settlements are purposefully preserved in their traditional form. Or, where local residents have certain restrictions on changing the appearance of buildings and their homesteads (A house in a protected village. How easy it is to ruin everything... or fix it! Arkhangelsk: Printing House No. 2 LLC, 2023. 68 p.). The estate, including housing and outbuildings, as an integral anthropogenic component of the cultural landscape, is subject to active artificial transformation over time. This is facilitated by the relatively short service life of wood in heated rooms, numerous situational alterations, external and internal repairs of buildings, depending on the taste and preferences of the owners. So in recent decades, the North Russian peasant house complex has practically ceased to be reproduced in its traditional form. Of course, there are still a large number of buildings of the late 19th century. XX centuries. of varying degrees of preservation, however, the old houses have lost their barnyard and litter, and new ones are most often built according to the type of cottages, due to significant changes in the socio-economic situation, way of life and peculiarities of farming of new settlers. However, traditional decorative elements (carved platbands, "suns", valances) still find their use.

Monuments of iconic wooden architecture, on the contrary, are preserved and recreated within the framework of the canon, "in the likeness", which ensures the continuity of both carpentry and cultural traditions. In the unmusified environment of villages and villages, the sacred landscape performs the function of commemoration — the accumulation of collective memory, an instrument for transmitting the cultural experience of the people. Religious buildings act as specific material "neural labels" inherent in the formation of collective memory ^[1].

In the regions of the Russian North, due to the vastness of its territory and a large number of settlements, the preservation of the sacred landscape should be especially noticeable even in the period of modernity — the beginning. XXI century . The focus of this work is the sacred landscape of the Northern Russian historical settlements at the present stage of their existence. First of all, the villages of the Onega Pomerania, which occupies the space of the Pomeranian and Onega shores of the White Sea (from Kemi to Cape Ukht-Navolok), the Tersk Pomerania, as well as the representative village of Kimzha in the Mezen district of the Arkhangelsk region. All of them relate not only to the North, but also to the Arctic (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 05/02/2014 No. 296 "On the land territories of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation". URL: http://www.kremlin.ru/acts/bank/38377). The specifics of the life of a Russian person in the conditions of the North and the Arctic formed a special type of thinking and mentality, which was based on Orthodoxy. They manifested themselves more vividly than anywhere else in the Arctic, where the Orthodox maritime culture has developed. The iconic monuments of wooden architecture here reflect the special conditions of life, and even in the XXI century they are the center of the surrounding landscape, fulfilling a protective and sacred mission ^[2].

Before moving on to specific examples, we will briefly establish the boundaries of the concept of sacred landscape in this work. As a concept in modern ethnocultural studies, it does not have a clearly defined definition. In all respects, it is part of the cultural landscape, the extensional definition of which, in relation to rural historical settlements, includes "settlement, natural landscape, planning and toponymic structure, folk architecture, as well as ethnicity, economic activity, language, spiritual culture" ^{[3, p. 55]}.

Analyzing the sacred landscape of various territories, researchers, as a rule, turn to natural objects and monuments of material culture that have a cult (sacred) significance. In the context of the study of ethnic religions, these can be mountains, hills, sacred groves, individual trees and stones, springs, Neolithic sites, mounds, ancient settlements, locations of pagan temples ^[4-6]. For the sacred landscapes of the North, formed under the influence of Christianity, the markers are monasteries, religious ensembles, churchyards, churches, chapels, crosses. These are the most representative objects, the sacred dominants of settlements (cultural landscapes), with rich religious semantics.

Churchyard, church, chapel, cross are iconic places and objects with the highest degree of sacredness in the sacred geography and geosophy of the North. They form the "first circle" of concentric functional and semantic spheres in the ternary structure and symbolism of the "Northern Russian world", one of the fundamental concepts of the Pomeranian semiotic school engaged in the study of the sacred landscapes of the Russian North ^[7].

It should be noted that sacred place names are an important part of the sacred landscape (as well as the cultural landscape) of the Russian North: mythological time; toponyms based on Orthodox and biblical vocabulary; anthroponymous names formed from the names of monks ^[8]. However, they are not the main subject of this study, which focuses on the monuments of northern wooden architecture.

The main part

The cultural landscape of the Russian North is, first of all, the landscape of rural historical settlements. Northern settlements arose in close connection with the natural landscape, transformed it into a cultural one. On the territory of the White Sea coast, the local Northern Russian subethnos, the Pomors, played a special role ^[2]. When developing space, they were guided by the principles of creating a compact form of settlements, erected a closed type of dwelling to counteract the cold climate.

A distinctive feature of the Pomeranian method of domestication of the territory was the synthesis of adaptation to the natural and climatic conditions of the North and the Arctic on the one hand and the desire to sacralize space formed by the harsh experience of marine life on the other. In the traditional picture of the world of the Pomors, the sea was endowed with the chthonic semantics of another world, and movement in this locus of religious and mythological space was equivalent to a real experience of death ^[9]. The danger of the sea has surprisingly affected the land. Many temples and chapels along the White Sea coast were dedicated to the "speedy helper", the patron saint of sailors. To Nicholas the Wonderworker. And to this day, a popular saying says: "from Kholmogor to Kola — thirty-three Nichols." It is not surprising that in this culture (in the words of Father Pavel Florensky, according to whom the whole culture can be interpreted as an activity for organizing space), the space of life relations (technical) and the conceivable space (mental) ^[10] found a common basis and embodied in the monuments of folk wooden architecture. Including in the cult architecture.

The way of life and the way of thinking of the Pomors did not find contradiction in the combination of deep religiosity and amazing rationalism, pragmatism. Thus, the Old Believers' way of life prevailed among the industrialists of the Pomeranian coast of the White Sea and the upper reaches of the Mezen River. They were distinguished by individualism and a penchant for entrepreneurship, but at the same time by widespread practices of religious vows and pilgrimages. Hence the dualism of the creative principle, embodied in one of the most striking cultural phenomena of the Russian North – wooden architecture. The semantics of architecture and marine images in it bear obvious signs of binarity. The church becomes a lighthouse. The ship is related to the house. The cross is with a mast ^[11].

But most importantly, these relations do not remain purely speculative, but receive a specific utilitarian expression. The Pomeranian crosses were not only monuments of architecture and sculpture, peasant writing and worship, but also served as navigation signs that were applied to pilot maps ^[3]. The temple, in turn, literally acted as the equivalent of a lighthouse. Since most of the Pomeranian settlements were founded at the mouths of rivers, the churches and bell towers erected here were clearly visible from the water. Even if the village was located a few kilometers from the coast, thanks to the high, elegant tent coverings characteristic of Northern Russian wooden architecture, the domes of the churches towered over the area, being visible even beyond the edge of the forest.

One of the most famous lighthouse temples of the Russian North is the Church of the Ascension (1862) on the Sekirnaya Mountain of Bolshoy Solovetsky Island. The Ascension Cathedral is the first in Russia, as well as the tallest monument with this function within the White Sea. Perhaps, it is the lighthouse temple that is one of the most concentrated images of Salvation in the entire North Russian cult architecture. The two main navigation signs of the White Sea are connected in its unique design, where the saving light of the lighthouse poured directly from under the cross of the church ^[12].

At the same time, it is worth noting that the Ascension Church was a lighthouse in the literal sense. However, any wooden church, due to its natural fire hazard, was a lighthouse, rather symbolically. For example, such a function is attributed to the St. Nicholas Church (1618) in the village of Purnema in the Arkhangelsk region, probably the oldest preserved religious building on the White Sea coast.

In the Onega Pomerania, about 25 km north of the village of Purnema, the village of Lyamtsa is located. This settlement is also of interest in consolidating and merging the images of the church and the lighthouse, but not in a specific architectural monument, but in the space of its sacred landscape. In the northwestern part of the village, a mountain (hill) rises on the coast. On it stood the Ilyinsky Church with the chapel of the Saints of Solovetsky (1850), rebuilt from the temple in 1691, which in turn was created by cutting the altar to the chapel of an unknown time ^[13]. In the second floor. XX century. there was also a lighthouse with a large lamp on the mountain (above a two-story house). There was also a power plant that was repeatedly moved here at various times, and a weather station until the 1990s. Neither the church nor the lighthouse exists anymore, but they are still symbolically present in the local toponymy, the name of the hill (oronym): Mount Ilyinskaya or Mount Mayevka.

As can be seen from this example, even the lost monument of religious architecture leaves its invisible presence in the sacred landscape of the settlement. However, sometimes a temple or chapel does not disappear, but only returns to its original form — the cross. This is part of the process characteristic of Pomerania of "the unfolding, expansion of the sacred space emanating from the energetic image of the cross, which is consistently embodied in the architectural and symbolic forms of a chapel, temple, monastery" ^{[9, p. 75]}. At the same time, the cross may not appear on the site of the temple immediately. Returning to the surroundings of Purnema, let's pay attention to D. Nizhmozero. The village is located on the banks of the Nizhma River, which unites the lakes: Kyandskoye, Purnemskoye, Unskoye, as well as Verkhneye Bolshoe and Verkhneye Maloe. The settlement is located 30 km from the village of Purnema, in a natural "bowl" with a river below, between two large hills. On top of one of them, dominating the district, stood the tent-roofed St. Nicholas Church (1661), which burned down in the second half of the XX century. A wooden memorial cross is currently installed in its place. Its slender silhouette serves as a visible evidence of the temple's existence (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. The cross on the site of St. Nicholas Church (1661), Nizhmozero village, Onega district, beginning. XXI century . Photo 2020

Worship, votive, commemorative, lighthouse, memorial, protective, cemetery, thanksgiving crosses are invariable markers of domestication of the territory of the Russian North. The very "process of mastering the North as a sacral space was associated with the spatial and temporal unfolding of the image of the Cross" ^[3]. This process is not limited to the time of existence of the peasant way of life, traditions, customs, and the dominant role of Orthodoxy in the life of the local population, which is typical even for the period of the late XIX–early XX century. XX centuries. The elevation of the cross, chapel and temple is part of the "living" folk culture. Thus, in the village of Varzuga, Murmansk region, the oldest Russian settlement on the Tersk coast of the White Sea ^[14], in 2009 a massive "Golden Cross of Varzuga" was installed. The monument stands on the left (so-called Nikolsky) bank of the Varzuga River, where presumably in the XV century there were ancient fortifications ("hillforts") of the original settlement ^{[15, 16]}. In Varzuga itself, also on the Nikolskaya side, there is a newly made cross-kiosk with icons with images of St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, as well as ap. Peter and Paul – correlated with the thrones of the temple ensemble of the left bank of the village, including Nikolskaya (1705) and Peter and Paul Church (1864). On the side facing the residential building there is an inscription: "Apostles of Christ Peter and Paul, pray to God for us sinners." Above the icon, the symbol of the all—seeing eye is carved above it. There is an inscription facing the river: "All-holy Intercessor Nicholas the Saint ... pray to God for us sinners (?)".

In the surveyed settlements of the Onega Pomerania, the cross of worship stands out for its status both in the sacred and cultural landscape as a whole. Lyamtsa. This is not only a monument of Orthodox culture, but also a marker of the historical and cultural memory of the village: during the Crimean War, in 1855, local peasants survived shelling and repelled an amphibious attack from an English steamer, for which they were noted by the Emperor himself. The cannonballs used by the British to shell the village were laid at the base of the cross ^[17].

The main advantage of a wooden cross is the speed of construction, as well as the convenience of installation almost anywhere. While preserving the diversity of meanings (Salvation, the World Tree, etc.), it remains a small architectural form that performs the most basic decorative function. Any iconic territory can be marked as part of an Orthodox sacred space if a cross is cut on it. For example, in the already mentioned village of Purnema, a wooden cross chapel marks the location of a spring with fresh water on the outskirts of the forest, and at the same time is an artificial decoration of the White Sea coast.

The chapel as an independent structure is the simplest expression of the temple, differing from it in smaller size and the absence of an altar. Requiring more attention and care than the cross and negatively perceived by the official church (especially during the XVIII-XIX centuries), the chapels of the surveyed territories were preserved to a much lesser extent than churches and crosses ^[18]. There are no ancient monuments of this type of Orthodox culture in the studied rural settlements. It was only in Varzuga village in 2007 that a new, miniature chapel was erected in honor of Uar the Martyr (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Chapel of Uar the Martyr, Varzuga village, Tersk district, 2007. Photo 2022.

And among the residents of the village of Purnema, there is an opinion that individual elements of the log house of the lost cemetery chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker are currently an integral part of the store building in the Upper Reaches.

One of the most outstanding works of wooden architecture, forming the appearance of the sacred rural historical settlements of the Russian North and the Arctic, undoubtedly are the cult architectural ensembles ("tees"), consisting of a complex of 2 temples (warm and cold) and a bell tower. These are the cultural and sacred dominants of the surrounding space, the most valuable monuments of traditional architecture, symbols of the Orthodox faith and carpentry skills of peasants. And now they are places of attraction for tourists, the main visual images of Pomeranian settlements. In the beginning. In the 21st century, only 6 such complexes have been preserved in the European North of Russia. 4 in the Arkhangelsk region: in the village of Vorzogoryand the village of Maloshuika (D. Abramovskaya) on the Pomeranian coast of the White Sea, in the village of Nenoksa on the Summer Coast, as well as the Pochezersk pogost in the village of Filippovskaya (NP "Kenozersky"). 1 complex in the village of Varzuga, Murmansk region, on the Tersk Coast and, finally, the magnificent architectural ensemble of the Kizhi Pogost (Kizhi Museum-Reserve), including the famous 22-main Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord (1714). The monuments of S. Nenox and O. Kizhi are part of the federal museums of the Small Korely Agricultural Museum and the Kizhi Research Institute; the "tee" of D. Filippovskaya is a monument of the Kenozersky National Park. At the same time, the Kizhi Pogost is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Pochezersk Pogost is a monument as part of the "Kenozerye Cultural Landscape", also under the auspices of UNESCO.

Orthodox churches as part of the religious architectural ensembles of the Pomeranian settlements of Vorzogory, Maloshuika and Varzuga are not museumified, but they still remain objects of cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation of federal and regional significance (Unified State Register of Cultural Heritage Sites (Historical and Cultural Monuments) of the Peoples of the Russian Federation. URL: https://opendata.mkrf.ru/opendata/7705851331-egrkn/). In each of these three complexes, a church dedicated to Nicholas the Wonderworker has been erected, which once again confirms the invisible unity of the sacred landscapes of the Pomeranian settlements under the patronage of this saint. Each "tee" is an invariable architectural dominant of its village, harmoniously combined with the dominant natural, usually a river. In the case of the village of Vorzogory, built at a distance from freshwater reservoirs, temples were erected in the center of the village of Kondratievskaya. Their sacred status was so high that in the absence of a river, peasants built houses contrary to the principles of adaptation to local natural conditions: most of the houses face the main facades to the churchyard, regardless of whether the huts are in the path of the cold wind blowing from the sea in the northern part of the village ^[19].

The sacred landscape of the representative village of Kimzha

Among the rural historical settlements of the Russian North and the Arctic, the village of Kimzha in the Mezen district of the Arkhangelsk region is distinguished by a high degree of archaism and authenticity of the cultural and sacred landscape. Even taking into account the inevitable loss of some of the monuments, the village still retains the appearance of an ancient settlement of the XIX–early XX centuries. Due to this, Kimzha has been included in the Association "The most beautiful villages of Russia" since February 19, 2017. At the same time, it became the first Arctic village in the Federation of the most Beautiful Villages in the World (Kimzha Village. Arkhangelsk region. URL: https://krasaderevni.ru/villages/kimzha/).

The scientific discovery of Kimzhi belongs to the complex scientific expeditions of the FITZKIA Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2004-2007 (Dr. kult. A.B. Permilovskaya, Arkhangelsk). The active social, cultural and educational work of local activists also played an important role. The residents of Kimzha, realizing the uniqueness of their village, in 2004 created a territorial public self-government body (CBT "Kimzha"), which was chaired by the director of the House of Culture Evdokia Gavrilovna Repitskaya. The main goal of the organization is the preservation of cultural heritage and the development of tourism. Subsequently, on the basis of the House of Culture in 2008, the Kimzha Cultural and Museum Center was founded here, which was transformed in 2016 into the MBU "Tourist Cultural and Museum Center "Kimzha". The structure of the center includes: the House of Culture, the School of Crafts (2009), the ethnographic museum "Politov House" (2005), the Landscape Museum complex "The Northernmost Mills in the World" (2015), the Barn Museum, including the "Museum of Crosses" (2011) and the "Museum of Life" (2009). From 2004 to 2024, CBT and TCMC implemented more than 30 grant projects that ensured the preservation of the local cultural landscape, continuity of traditions, including: "The northernmost mills in the world" (2007, 2014, 2018), " Kimzhensky Crosses" (2012), "Journey to the Ice Kingdom" (2016) and others .

Kimzha is located on the banks of the river of the same name — the left tributary of the Mezen, 350 km from Arkhangelsk and 50 km from the city of Mezen. The Mezen River flows in the very north of the Arkhangelsk region. Its basin is located on the border of taiga and tundra, which makes this territory (also part of the Russian Arctic) one of the coldest areas in the region. Thus, according to its natural and climatic conditions, Kimzha can be considered not only as a village of the Russian North, but also of the Arctic.

The exact date of the village's foundation is unknown, probably the beginning. XVI century . The settlement first appears in the 1600 census. There is no "Founding Day" of the settlement in the life of the village, significant dates are directly related to the Orthodox tradition: August 10 is the patronal feast day, Bogoroditsyn Day (village day), July 21 is a visiting holiday — Prokopiev Day (the traditional feast of the show). In the neighboring settlements, there are also still visiting holidays: July 7 — Midsummer Day (Ivan Kupala) in Dorogorskoye village, July 12 — Petrov day in the village of Zherd.

The cultural landscape of the village is rich in monuments of wooden architecture: religious, civil, economic, industrial. Impressive two-storey complexes of the Northern Russian house-yard are presented in large numbers here, and one of the pearls of the Mezen and the Russian North as a whole, of course, is the landscape and museum complex "The Northernmost Mills in the World" with 2 post mills on the ridge (1897, 1934). However, the true value lies in the sacred landscape of the village. In the context of preserving, without exaggeration, the rarest monuments of wooden architecture, Kimzha is also valuable for its iconic architecture. First of all, this is one of the last two wooden churches with the type of covering "tent on a baptised barrel" — the church of the icon of the Mother of God "Hodegetria" (1709). (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Odigitrievskaya Church, Kimzha village, Mezen district, 1709. Photo 2024

The main room of the temple is a four-sided log house on a high basement. From the east there is a five—sided altar block, covered with a keeled cocoanut barrel. From the west: a spacious refectory, a bell tower and a two-way porch. The belfry and the landing have an openwork fence. The bell tower is completed with an octagonal tent. The fells of each log house are decorated with a decorative frieze belt made of wooden hexagonal bars. An additional belt of octagonal "crackers" runs under the roof itself, and also frames the contours of the barrels. The tents, the necks of the domes and the domes are covered with a scaly ploughshare. The central head of the tent and the bell tower are additionally decorated with an elegant epanche. Each barrel, the powerful gables of log cabins and porches are completed with stylized skates (a distinctive feature of the village of Kimzha, where skates are cut down even on outbuildings).

For an indefinite period of time, the church was used as the location of a pioneer camp (PMA. Report on the expedition to the Mezen district. The informant — Lebedeva Lyubov Pavlovna, born in 1981, M.R. — D. Kimzha, M.P. — G. Arkhangelsk. Entry 2024). Since 1968, the monument has been under All-Union, then Russian state protection. In 1999, on the initiative of local residents, a church parish was opened. After the completion of the restoration in 2001-2021, the church was sheathed.

The history of the temple at its current location is closely connected with the origin of the settlement and the appearance here of the first peasant families of Fedorkov and Payusov, later Okulov, Safonov, Mitkin and others. According to a living legend, with the growth of the village, the old people at a general meeting decided to build a new church in honor of the Mother of God Hodegetria. The choice was made between the village square, on the field in the Fence and the high Trisha hill above the river. The fate of the temple was decided by a cast of lots: the church was cut down in a cleared place, the square in the center of the settlement (PMA. Report on the expedition to the Mezen district. The informant — Pavel Gavrilovich Kruptsov born in 1958, M.R. — D. Koida, M.P. — D. Kimzha. Entry 2024). Despite the choice of the place by lot, it remains extremely successful, because it is located in a bend of the river.

Even before the closure of the temple in 1935, any manifestations of religiosity began to be condemned. Although no attempts were made to destroy the building, local pioneers were forced to cut down votive crosses for firewood and chop down icons. According to legend, the main propagandist, a school teacher (or school principal), was punished by God for his appeals: after the war began, he was mobilized, and he was almost immediately torn apart by a shell at the front. A legend is also associated with the temple to the tune of a hidden treasure. Before the church closed, people dismantled the old icons. The common people were carried home, and the most valuable and church utensils were wrapped in brocade by the relatives of the last priest Vasily Olympievich Golchikov and taken outside the village, buried in one of the streams. The Soviet government has not found any value (PMA. Report on the expedition to the Mezen district. The informant is Pavel Gavrilovich Kruptsov, born in 1958, M.R. – D. Koida, M.P. – D. Kimzha. Entry 2024) ^[20].

The traditional story of retribution for blasphemy (typical of settlements where religious buildings were destroyed in the 1930s) also refers to the votive cross in the Fence (1887). The folk story about the desecration of the cross tells about a party worker who, in the late 1930s, cut off the hands of the crucifixion, cut off the head of Jesus Christ with an axe and threw it into the river ^[3]. It is believed that those who attempted to depict the Savior died a terrible death (PMA. Report on the expedition to the Mezen district. The informant — Lebedeva Lyubov Pavlovna, born in 1981, M.R. — D. Kimzha, M.P. — G. Arkhangelsk. Entry 2024).

The cross in the Fence is a particularly revered place, located 1.5 km from the village, on the river bank. The wooden monument was erected by merchant Savin "in memory of the rescue from drowning in the Mezen river." This is an eight-pointed cross typical of the Russian North, with a height of 4.55 m. The traditional words of prayer are carved on the central crossbar: "We worship your Cross, Vladyka, and we glorify your Holy Resurrection." On the reverse side of the large crosshair is an inscription: "Image of the Resurrection of Prayer." The surface of the cross is covered with cryptograms and words of prayer ^[3]. A wooden fence is made around the cross, 2 benches are installed inside. A special metal candle box with a lockable flap is hung under the lower oblique crossbar.

Parishioners bring offerings to the holy place: money, sweets, candles, toys. After the closure of the Odigitria Church and before the resumption of divine services, the cross in the Fence was a constant place of solitary prayer, becoming a kind of replacement for five lost chapels and a closed temple. The special place of the cross in the sacred landscape of Kimzhi is beyond doubt. Its special status has been confirmed and formally registered as a monument of cultural heritage of regional significance. However, it should be noted the negative trend characteristic of recent years. Back in the office. XX–beginning. In the 21st century, a wonderful annual tradition was preserved: at Easter, sew a shirt made of white linen with an embroidered cross in the middle and put it on the cross. It was also customary to tie pieces of cloth, shawls, on the cross itself. However, at the time of the field survey in July 2024, it was found that a special covered shield was installed behind the fence, with offerings hung on it (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. The cross in the Fence, Kimzha village, Mezen district, 1887. On the right, the offerings of the parishioners are hung on the shield. Photo 2024

This may be due to people's desire to keep the inscriptions on the cross and the figure of Christ carved by the master open. Probably, not least for the possibility of its photo fixation by tourists. However, such an "optimization" of the cult monument distorts its true appearance, traditionally hidden by numerous offerings symbolizing the value of the cross itself and the reverent attitude of the parishioners towards it.

In the period 2004-2007, about. 20 preserved crosses ^[3]. Taking into account the losses and the installation of new facilities in subsequent years, in general, a significant number of these monuments of iconic wooden architecture are maintained in the village. Some of them, such as the cross in the estate of N.A. Safonova (1919), as well as modern commemorative crosses (2013) of A.A. Kruptsova (1903-1938) and A.G. Payusova (1878-1970), who suffered for the faith, who lost 5 sons at the front, are material markers of Orthodox culture, vivid visual dominants in the sacred the space of the historical settlement (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. A cross dedicated to a resident of the village of Kimzha A.A. Kruptsova, who suffered for her faith, 2013. On the left is the tombstone obelisk of E.P. Kruptsova, S. Kimzha, Mezen district. Photo 2024

Others are in less conspicuous places. And, if the cross in the Fence located on the riverbank is widely known, then the sacred place near the cemetery in the White Temple is hidden. The base of the cross installed here is hidden in a dense grove, which has only grown more overgrown in recent years (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6. A sacred place in the area of the cemetery in Belaya Viska, Kimzha village, Mezensky district, beginning. XX century. Photo 2024

The variety of wooden crosses in Kimzha is a consequence of the steady custom of setting family crosses and their inheritance. Subsequently, such monuments could move after the owner, from the plot near the peasant house to the cemetery, acquiring a new status and purpose. Another reason is due to the large number of family graves on the territory of the settlement, both in the forest and in the fields near the roads. Ancient burials are often broken by passing cars and overgrown with grass, however, eight-pointed crosses covered with a characteristic traditional roof-cabbage rolls, years later continue to rise above the ground.

Conclusion

The results of a field survey of rural historical settlements of the Onega and Tersk Pomerania, as well as the representative village of Kimzha in the Arkhangelsk region, show the heterogeneity of the preservation of the sacred landscapes of these territories. The studied Pomeranian villages and villages of the Onega, Pomeranian and Tersk shores of the White Sea are primarily characterized by the cult architectural ensembles, which are practically lost in the rest of the Russian North, consisting of two temples and a bell tower. These outstanding monuments of wooden architecture form the core of not only sacred, but also cultural landscapes of settlements here. The upward-pointing tents, covered with a masterfully cut ploughshare of many heads, the strict silhouettes of churches erected on natural elevations, form the visual and semantic dominants of the developed space. Their architectural and artistic features, volumetric composition and silhouette do not contradict, but are in harmony with natural objects such as a river, forest, hill. Together they form natural-sacred complexes and are perceived as a single whole.

Nevertheless, with the development of satellite navigation systems, Northern Russian religious ensembles, individual churches, chapels and crosses are losing an important applied function of lighthouses and navigation signs. The sacred landscape of Pomerania, which was formed and existed in the equilibrium dualism of the Orthodox faith and traditional Pomeranian pragmatism, currently remains to a greater extent the keeper of collective memory and the spiritual reference point of the local population. Instead of the lost functions, ancient monuments of iconic wooden architecture are becoming a powerful factor in the development of tourism industries.

Despite the disappearance of a large number of religious buildings, primarily chapels, the wooden temple and the cross remain key markers of the sacred space. Wooden Orthodox crosses are a particularly striking phenomenon in traditional Northern Russian culture. Their diversity and influence on the role of maintaining the authenticity of the sacred landscape are fully preserved in the representative village of Kimzha, Arkhangelsk region. Currently, both ancient votive and modern wooden crosses are located here, perpetuating the memory of local residents and their families. While acknowledging the existence of some problems in the representation of traditional cultural monuments (for example, in placing offerings at the cross in the Fence), it should be noted that the preservation of the sacred landscape of Kimzhi is at a high level, and the village itself demonstrates a balance between maintaining the status of an iconic center of tourism industries and a unique protected village in the Russian North and in the Arctic.

List of abbreviations

PMA — field materials of the author.

FITSKIA Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences is the Federal Research Center for the Integrated Study of the Arctic named after Academician N.P. Laverov of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.