Aspen Ploughshare Shingles (Lemekh)

Lemekh (Russian, literally "ploughshare") is the name given to the small carved wooden shingles that cover the curved roofs of traditional wooden churches in northern Russia. They are usually made of aspen and are shaped with a stepped or pointed lower end, so that a dome covered with them looks scaled. Laid over curved surfaces, they allow onion domes, barrel roofs and tent roofs to be clad entirely in timber. As aspen weathers it takes on a silvery-grey tone that can shimmer in changing light.

Where they are used

Russian wooden church builders favoured expressive roof forms: tall tent roofs that could reach about 18 m (60 ft), barrel (bochka) and cube-shaped roofs, and clusters of onion domes. Curved forms appeared mainly on churches and wealthy houses and were often decorated with carvings and ploughshare shingles. Archival records show, for example, that the tent roof of the Church of the Nativity at Bolkachevskaya (1769) in the Povazhye area was covered with lemekh, and other 17th- and 18th-century tent roofs in the region were covered with wooden shingles. At Kizhi, flatter roof surfaces were covered with spruce planks instead.

Kizhi Pogost

The best-known example is the Church of the Transfiguration at Kizhi Pogost on Lake Onega in Karelia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1990. Dendrochronology places its construction after 1713-1714. The church rises to 37 m (121 ft) and carries 22 domes clad in aspen. Published counts of the shingles differ: about 60,000 shingles fixed with about 180,000 nails according to one account, and about 30,000 carved shingles according to another. The nearby Church of the Intercession (1764) has nine domes, and the octagonal bell tower (1862, rebuilt 1874) has a shingled onion dome.

The shingles are made by hand. Craftsmen carve a stepped profile into each one using a curved-blade axe. Beneath them, the domes are covered with birch bark as an additional waterproof layer. Aspen is valued because it is flexible and strong, and resists warping and rot.

Restoration history

In the 19th century the Kizhi domes were covered with metal sheets and the walls with boards; a restoration in 1949-1959 returned the churches to their original appearance. In 1980-1983 a steel frame was installed inside the Transfiguration Church to stabilise it. A long restoration, carried out in full from 2011 and lasting about a decade, replaced only 36% of the structure's timber; about 40,000 roof shingles were restored individually, with some replaced by new ones made by traditional methods. The church reopened to visitors in 2021.

Maintenance

Wooden shingles on domes are exposed to rain, snow and sun on every side and must be repaired and replaced periodically. At Kizhi, replacement shingles have been made using traditional techniques.