Kizhi is an island on Lake Onega in the Republic of Karelia (Medvezhyegorsky District), Russia with a beautiful ensemble of wooden churches, chapels and houses. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Russia and a World Heritage Site.
The island is about 7 km long and 0.5 km wide. It is surrounded by about 5,000 other islands, most of which are very small. The world famous Kizhi Museum is one of the largest out-door museums in Russia – was founded in 1966.
The museum collections contain 83 pieces of the wooden architecture. The core of the collection is an outstanding sample of the wooden architecture – the architectural ensemble of the Kizhi Pogost of Our Savior built on Kizhi Island in the 18 th and the 19 th centuries. In 1990 the ensemble entered the World Heritage List of UNESCO. In 1993 the Kizhi Museum was entered the List of Cultural Objects of Special Value of the Peoples of the Russian Federation by Order of the President.
More than 150 thousand people visit the museum every year. More than 5 million people have visited the museum so far. The museum has very rich collections of the items connected with the cultural history, which demonstrate the subject environment of the past and reveal interrelations of the cultural traditions of the different peoples living in Karelia.