Est. 2009 • Petrozavodsk — Kizhi — Valaam • Non-profit

SACRED North.
LIVING ICONS OF KARELIA.

KareIcon saves, studies and revives the Orthodox icon heritage of Karelia — from 16th-century northern letters to village chapel shrines. Expeditions, restoration lab, icon-painting school and a free digital archive.

Discover our mission ✦ Explore collection

1,180+Icons documented

214Chapels surveyed

86Restored & returned

◆ Current expedition

Zaonezhye & Vodlozero — winter survey 2026

◆ Open archive

4K scans, pigment analysis, stories

◆ Next event

Icon-painting intensive, March 2026

KARELIAN ICONS ✦ RESTORATION ✦ WOODEN ARCHITECTURE ✦ EGG TEMPERA ✦ GOLD LEAF ✦ ZAONEZHYE ✦ KIZHI ✦ VALAAM ✦ VODLOZERO ✦ KARELIAN ICONS ✦ RESTORATION ✦ WOODEN ARCHITECTURE ✦ EGG TEMPERA ✦ GOLD LEAF ✦ ZAONEZHYE ✦ KIZHI ✦ VALAAM ✦ VODLOZERO ✦

01 — Who we are

We keep the face of the North alive.

KareIcon.org is an independent heritage foundation. For 17 years we have worked with villages, monasteries, museums and families to prevent the disappearance of Karelian icon painting — austere, luminous, deeply northern.

◈

Our promise
No icon leaves Karelia. We restore in situ and return shrines to living chapels, not storages.

From attic dust to altar light: how a Karelian icon is reborn.

Northern icons were painted for dark log chapels lit only by candles — hence their enlarged eyes, white highlights, and stark contrasts. Many survived wars, Soviet closures and damp attics. We find them, stabilize them, study pigments, teach youth to copy them, and give them back to communities.

1
Search & Rescue.
Annual expeditions with local keepers. GPS mapping, photo fixation, emergency conservation.
2
Science & Soul.
X-ray, IR, dendrochronology and theological analysis. Every icon gets a passport.
3
School & Return.
Free icon-painting courses in Petrozavodsk and Kizhi. Restored icons return for feast days.

See restoration lab Our timeline →

17Years in field

32Villages partners

540Students trained

100%Donations to craft

02 — Collection

Northern letters: three schools we protect.

Karelian iconography is not one style — it is a dialogue of Novgorod severity, Moscow gold and peasant warmth.

Zaonezhye • 17th c.

St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, stern guardian of lakes

Dark ochre, huge blessing hand, storm-grey background. Found in Kosmozero chapel, restored 2022.

Vodlozero • 18th c.

Mother of God of the Burning Bush in folk blue

Peasant palette: lingonberry red, lake blue, rye gold. Painted on linden board with gesso cracks preserved.

Pomorie • 19th c.

Old Believers’ Deesis row from a White Sea skete

Bronze rizas, candle soot, prayer-worn edges. Documented with the community, never removed.

03 — Craft

Egg, earth & gold: how we paint.

Our school teaches exactly as Zaonezhye masters did: linden board, hide glue, levkas, natural pigments — cinnabar, glauconite, ochre — egg tempera, olifa, gold assist. No acrylics. No shortcuts.

STAGE 01 — BOARD

Linden, dowels, kovcheg ark

Boards seasoned 5 years, cut with raised ark, glued with fish glue, covered in 12 layers of levkas and polished with horsetail.

STAGE 02 — DRAWING

Proris, roskrysh, пробела

Canonical drawing transferred, first flat fills, then three stages of lightening faces — from sankir to final оживки.

STAGE 03 — GOLD

Leaf on poliment, burnished with agate

Backgrounds gilded to recall northern white nights — light that never leaves.

Join winter intensive 2026
6 days • Petrozavodsk + Kizhi • all materials included • 12 seats
Reserve seat →

04 — Restoration lab

Dust, soot, woodworm — we reverse time.

Our Petrozavodsk lab restored 86 icons since 2015. We show every step openly: before / during / after, with chemistry protocols published free.

Case 42 • Kosmozero

Paraskeva Friday, eaten by damp

Consolidation of levkas, removal of 1960s oil overpaint, reattachment of gesso. Returned for feast 2023.

Lab diary • X-ray

Hidden angel under Soviet paint

Infrared revealed original 17th-century face under green overpaint. 214 hours of scalpel work.

Case 71 • Vodlozero

Two-sided processional icon

Both sides saved, new dowels, climate box built for village chapel with no heating.

05 — History

Five centuries on wood.

1500s — NOVGOROD ECHO

First chapels on lake islands

Missionaries bring Novgorod icons; local carpenters build first log chapels without nails.

1700s — GOLDEN AGE

Zaonezhye masters & Kizhi Pogost

1714 Transfiguration Church rises. Peasant painters create bold northern style with huge eyes and white движки.

1930s — SILENCE

Closures, attics, rescue by grandmothers

Women hide icons in barns and wells. Many survive only because babushkas disobeyed.

2009 — KAREICON BORN

Students, priests and scientists unite

First expedition to 12 villages. Digital archive launched with 200 scans.

2026 — TODAY

Open lab, living chapels

We maintain 18 chapels year-round, teach 120 students yearly, publish all research free.

Did you know?

Why northern eyes are so large

In dark chapels icons were seen only by candlelight from 5 meters away. Masters exaggerated eyes and highlights so saints “looked” at peasants through smoke and gloom. It is theology of visibility.

See close-ups →

07 — Chronicle / News

Field notes & latest stories.

Expedition diaries, restorations, finds and village feasts. Click any story to read the full report — each has its own page.

Expeditions are in the field — stories coming soon.

Our team is currently in Zaonezhye without internet. Check back in a few days for fresh reports, or visit our archive sections above.

08 — Visit

Come to Karelia. Touch living wood.

We run small ethical tours: max 8 people, no flash, donations go to chapel roofs. Petrozavodsk lab open every Friday, Kizhi summer school July–August, Vodlozero winter pilgrimage February.

◈ Petrozavodsk, Neglinskaya 12 — lab & shop, Fri 11:00–18:00
◈ Kizhi Island — summer icon-painting veranda
◈ Kosmozero, Vasilyevo — living chapels, feast days open

Plan a visit Read FAQ

Kizhi Pogost — heart of our work, 68 km from Petrozavodsk.

09 — FAQ

Questions we hear.

Do you sell original icons?

No. Never. Originals belong to villages, parishes or museums. We sell only modern copies painted by our students, prints and books to fund restoration.

Can I bring a family icon for examination?

Yes, every Friday in Petrozavodsk. We do free visual assessment, UV and photo fixation, and give care recommendations. No obligation.

Are you a religious organization?

We are a secular heritage foundation working with Orthodox, Old Believer and museum communities alike. Respect for living faith is our rule; all confessions’ shrines are treated equally.

How can I help from abroad?

Fund a roof, adopt an icon (you pay restoration, village keeps it), translate archive descriptions into English/Finnish, or join a summer volunteer camp.

10 — Contact & Support

Keep a chapel warm.

Donate

18 chapels need roofs before snow

€25 = box of candles for a winter feast. €150 = 1 m² of aspen shingles. €900 = full restoration of one village icon. Reports with photos every quarter.

Donate now Our charter

KareIcon Foundation, Petrozavodsk, Neglinskaya 12, 185000. Email: privet via contact form below. Open Mon–Fri.