The Kizhi Museum-Reserve is a unique open-air museum located on the island of the same name in Lake Onega. The museum's exhibition is dedicated to the Russian culture of the Zaonezhye region and the protected monument of wooden architecture. Kizhi Island is 5.5 km long and up to 1.5 km wide.

Kizhi is the most famous attraction in Karelia. This small island, one of nearly one and a half thousand in Onega, contains about a hundred masterpieces of wooden architecture from the Russian North, making it most suitable for the description "Wooden."

The state reserve includes not only the wooden architecture museum on Kizhi but also the "Old Town" area in Petrozavodsk, as well as several objects from the villages and settlements of the Medvezhyegorsk district.

The Kizhi ensemble consists of several sectors united by location and theme. In photographs, tourists usually see majestic wooden churches, but they are surprised by the many household buildings of different peoples of Zaonezhye.

The main exhibition of the museum, its calling card, includes domes and monumental churches, among which is the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, built in 1714. The height of this remarkable structure is 37 meters to the cross on top. The wooden Transfiguration Church has an octagonal log structure, and its twenty-two silver domes, located on different tiers, give it a resemblance to a fairy tale tower. The interior of the church is decorated with a four-tiered iconostasis, which houses over a hundred icons.

The Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord has been restored multiple times, with the latest work starting in 2009 and completed in 2021. Among other notable buildings in the "Russian Zaonezhye" sector is the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God, one of the oldest structures on Kizhi, built in 1694. It has an elongated rectangular shape and a height of 26 meters. Unlike the Transfiguration Church, the Intercession Church is heated in winter, and services are held here from October until Easter. There is also a bell tower built in 1863, 30 meters high, and the Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus, built in the 14th century and moved to the island in 1960.

The wooden fence of the Kizhi burial site with gates was built in 1800 and is 300 meters long. The gates, the main entrance, are located opposite the Church of the Intercession. The Chapel of Archangel Michael was moved here in 1961 from the village of Lelikozero, and the Bikanin windmill appeared in the 1960s, brought from the village of Volkostrov.

The churches on Kizhi Island are not the only attractions. Other sectors introduce visitors to the everyday life of the Russian North. In the village of Vasilievo, there are residential houses, barns, and the Chapel of the Assumption of the Mother of God. The "Yamka" sector reconstructs the life of a typical Zaonezhye settlement, including a windmill, the Ananyev house, and barns. The "Priazhinskie Karels" sector introduces the culture of the Karel-Livviks, while the "Northern Karels" present objects from the northern regions of the republic. The culture of the Veps villages is represented by barns and a bathhouse, and the "Pudozhsky" sector features buildings from Pudozh villages. The "Kondopozhsky" sector demonstrates the life of Karels and Veps, including the Chapel of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

The remaining sectors are located outside the island, including a museum in Petrozavodsk and the "Kizhi Necklace" sector on the surrounding islands and mainland part of the Zaonezhye region. The island's infrastructure includes a restaurant serving Karelian cuisine and a souvenir shop. There are no guest houses on the island, but one can stay in nearby Zaonezhye villages, where locals rent out rooms and houses.

The Kizhi Reserve was established in 1945 and included two churches and a bell tower from the 18th-19th centuries. In 1966, the ensemble was supplemented with wooden buildings from other villages in Karelia, and in 1990, the Kizhi burial site was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The history of Kizhi began in the 16th century when there was an Orthodox parish called Spassky. By the end of the 17th century, seven parishes had been built on the island, but there was no main cathedral. In 1669, merchant Gavrilov founded a copper smelting plant, which later became unprofitable and was converted to iron production. Local peasants were unhappy with the construction of factories, leading to uprisings, the largest of which was the uprising of 1769-1771.

The architectural appearance of the Kizhi burial site was restored thanks to the visit of Academician Lev Vladimirovich Dal. Among the celebrities who visited the island were artist Ivan Bilibin, painter Igor Grabar, and architectural historian Mikhail Krasovsky.

After the October Revolution, the island became a protected monument, and services were held here until 1937. During World War II, the territory was occupied, but the icons taken to Finland later returned. The Orthodox parish reopened in 1993, and the first service was held in 1994.