well again this is our c a quick check of the headlines. a top syrian official hanes that's president assad mind to step down but only as a result of dialogue and if is the will of the syrian people some media outlets spun the story to suggest assad's resignation could be imminent this comes as deadly battles are raging in the country and spilling across the border into lebanon. u.s. attorneys say they are being violent from talking about torture and silence as military tribunals are going turn to the prison that still running despite obama's promises to shanta down the issue of legal restrictions is said to be discussed at the pretrial hearings of five september eleventh terror suspects they were shuttled to start today but were delayed until thursday gto train crash in baltimore which destructors the internet connection to guntown i'm ok. and after months of protests

over a failing economy report on how spain's recession has hit not just its people but its animals too many of the country's horses are condemned to death by their owners who can't afford to keep them. that's the headline here and i'll see up next we'll take you to some of the most remote villages in russia where ancient wouldn't churches are a big draw for visitors. can you just quickly tell me if this is all because i can't see without my glasses. something. is this is such a thankless of the. future because. there are two churches churches. and then the mention. my name is richard davis i'm an architectural photographer from london.

and i've been traveling in russia for the last ten years on a project photograph wooden churchill's. i knew that you know to do a proper book you needed time you didn't create a book in a fortnight. you need a subject that you really believe in obviously i fell in love with the chances they are extraordinary opiates they'd be full of lives.

i'm going to read something here that richard shots liberated in the sixteenth century here didn't intend to come to russia he was actually looking for the northeast passage there was a big storm of the ended up in the white sea and this is what he he wrote about the churches he said they church is a built of timber and the towers of the churches for the most part are covered with

shingle boards at the doors of the churches they used to be build some engines so foolish as we do. we just arrived at pura naima i can show you actually sewage relaxing food in the food which here in the foreground they were who had a really good there was there was wonderfully sunny it's full of. if you.

got any ideas why should i do. such an. temper long time. ok so that will come out just have a little walk around the church was cheshire for a name it was built they say in sixteen ac although this could be summed up you can see the roof here is pretty rotten and it's another for the timber has a an amazing texture through.

the camera anything in the house of blood and it's good output and it's got a rising front which means that you when you take fredricka it doesn't look as a the building's falling over and because you're not tipping the camera you just lifting the lens you were. in the middle. you. know what it will come up i suppose this church might have been build even before sixteen eighteen that was the year when the church was registered in the records of the sars archeological commission and it was dated soley on the strength of a survey among local clergy. who thought he was decent below st nicholas the

miracle worker was the patron saint of all white sea manners and explorers. they certainly needed his protection and indeed had it as they braved the perils of rough seas making their way from village to village you've got all those death haunts each time they head out to sea or reconcile it with the thought that they may be unable to come back for that reason they have a totally different perception of the face compared to people living far from the shore buildings on the white sea coast are filled with a keen sense of life that's typical of people living in the north. here's some more graffiti on the wall more lovers and it might this is a big space we can see. and you can see where there were project as the host of the project so this was obviously used as the club and the

cinema during soviet times so i guess there would have been a big screen where the where the icon of stuff is was and this is in a pretty bad state as well. we've been to the church when i could try and find somebody in the village in the world maybe tell us something about the history of the church and hopefully find somebody who saw the film. in the church of the nativity. scene they did with redheads go. something. that. your idea just put it out i live three. so what. did you. do. your job to do which your thought. my point was when you go home. you're ok

ok. you're. propaganda back then was focused against the church and everything it stood for i mean as members of the young communist league where i began this church here was really the only suitable place for clubs people ganske here every weekend and a couple supposed down in one thousand nine hundred three. in the churches is a religious monument obviously but it's also an object of wonder you know it's something that people can look at and. opens their eyes that shows.

what can be achieved by using your imagination and you know hopefully the religious activity will return but it still needs to be and still needs to be saved up since the breakup of the soviet union obviously there have been other more important things to do with your money like by ferrari's and expensive watches and things like that but i think i'm hoping that people will wake up to the to the fact that these objects are precious and you need. need this. right fake a say where five centuries feeling to try for. facing a long time face to face. face frame of the file a smile for the camera fast. food there's

a lot of waiting to do before we can be picked up the sea shore here is very very shy other fish. thank you. i have a brother who's mentally handicapped and my mother spent her whole life trying to raise money to to support people who were mentally handicapped you know watching my mother do that maybe i feel that i should be doing something to to support something that i think is worthwhile now i could say that my mother was an inspiration because i saw her you know devoting a life to the cause that she had i haven't done that i've devoted my life to you know myself and my family and and other things but you know that reserving a heritage of this is a little moment when it might be possible to make

a tiny difference in a tiny. tiny world with intentions. we're just having a little walk. in the village now you can see that the house. and everything there's just one one family in the village at the moment and they're just here for the summer my sign of life very beautiful to bring her. memories from around. the. ship.

but then you could sort of and here you can see st nicholas church. it was built in the eight hundred twenty s. today it serves as a reminder of the fate of many other russian wooden churches. back in the old days churches were form of spiritual support not only for the villages but also the whole surrounding area people used to flock to them on sundays and major holidays. it's fair to say that now the villages are dying in much the same way as the churches. neighbor is quite late. for. this one so then it. stays seen this extraordinary village.

i'm going to see. this is the said trip and we've just. had lunch after seeing the church and. captain is worried that it's getting too would be for us to move on and say we're sitting here lying on the rocks getting the sleep that we didn't get last night and. that we will be able to continue.

hey we are we're only a few feet and you can just stay. in the fifty's. getting rougher and rougher stay with me here. than you alex but. that's. not ok. with just. a few things any day that we. will do the. science technology innovation called the least i'm elements from around russia we've got the future covered. culture is that so much different and there's a huge missing issue has the power to find time to find serious breach

a civil war without question this conflict has turned into a proxy war involving regional players and western powers. what bush was trying to hear. here take this stick. and now no stand here looks like it's about a metre deep. you

will find here we see examples of early and late architecture standing side by side in the belfry serves as a connection between these two times it's all in harmony with the village. that raises the idea on the bus through a building a wooden church is like a writing poetry stick with what he know perfect work of poetry seems to involve much effort on the part of it's all there in the broad in fact each verse takes a good deal of effort and so does each one of the logs that go into a wooden church that good at that i wouldn't churches are said to have no nails in them this is not a figure of speech it's simply the most convenient way of building a wooden church where the joints are very firm as a result of the fact that the logs way down on each other. you know. what will you.

think gainey is. for you to be. strict with sam if you can get. instruction. given the way this is where the collective farm stood it's great you get. pulled down soon after the revolution. young people in the country believed in neither god nor the devil at the time you know that he had other ideals. ropes would be fixed to the crowds of youngsters will pull of them to bring the domes down where you are the roof would then become it up. but your church next door was used as a club house throughout the years of soviet government you. will. see each. future interesting.

is the view from the synch. the clubhouse was brought into existence as a place where villages could get culture of a specific sought in clubhouses professional coach or a boat nicky coach or workers were charged with planning activities in the remote village areas including celebrations of the new soviet holidays dunces plays agitation of soviet ideals and atheism and importantly keeping watch over excess in the failures of the cold. could be just to over a quarter mile of the say how from a short cut to the base. bush was in between could even do

a rift something or a. good business for him to turn ok self-proclaimed. are you going on this to the room to everyone else. to see.

him and know you know you over the weekend so he will be able to do a reading. olmo. your mom was. good in the own. learn to. show you go you know move oh ah ah. you. see three o'clock in the morning and we're looking for some food. we've been up. all night. the girls been singing beautiful songs so we've now come down to the

beach before we go to sleep for a couple of hours. as we're on the the island of condo ostroff which was part of the gulag i thought i'd read something on the bolshoi sort of x.p. the main island of this white sea archipelago there is a fortified monastery was founded in four hundred twenty nine until the nineteenth century this was the only official state prison in russia in the house many improve religious and historical figures these magnificent built for the glory of god witnessed monstrous events over hundreds of years we do like archipelago the network of camps and stretched across the vast territory. started life on this move cluster of before island stepped in what soldiering it's in rightly call a matter of. three cents a day without the big group from the university went off to another church or the

white soup to a chance of seeing the people of the chester is being restored. and when did the chancel disappear so long time yeah sometimes. yeah no one knows exactly. what. happened. ok.

as you can see it's an absolutely wonderful church it's huge and and when i first came here it was in a terrible state and nobody seemed to be really interested in in restoring it or do any any work of exmoor. until we met alexei sixteen whose mother is from the village and he's very involved in trying to restore the village and raise raise funds to going inside you can see that they are getting things here and you know it is looking much cleaner much nicer it's being tied it up but there is still a hell of a lot of work to do here somewhere all along it's like you know if you want to. cry i think it will miss you pretty young for the fishing it was this may be just misfortune. this is the. school.

year there will be in the first eclipse of the species. myself to feed and we've only just started when it will be finished just and i want to get this but i'm not doing it alone i couldn't have cut without help from the others and you wish one. in fact i might have given up on it if this. if this. if. it's your. so if. they can you just. this. it's a serious serious differences. is her with last year's a good saying. faith with deeds is death maker heinies not shit we need to finish

the job if only for the sake of those kids sitting on the benches you when you have called as a book or a mate as they see we're trying to do something to restore this everlasting treasure. but you could give us peace on the basis. of goodies i'm only doing what i think is right i'm not out to pursue any special goals just what i think is right. i'm sure some will say that i'm doing this without god's blessing. well if i think it's right under that somehow things of all was well down in the past month. just pound that. dominates the landscape in a very very beautiful and not filled rush hour and i'm just going to. swing the

camera around and. say you. got something opposite side of the bank. this is serious when you're rushed in on its glory crassness. i mean i'm happy for them to carry this but i see. which flushes i feel. guilty i am. being.