The quality of secure containment bathed in warm, mysterious light is the most important contribution of architecture to the liturgical experience. Every traditional Orthodox church shares this expression, regardless of whether it is a great cathedral or a wooden chapel. Even modest village churches were built of thick logs stepping inward to create a vault or dome-like enclosure. They provide a warm and motherly embrace that is akin to the domed stone churches of great cities. The humble logs, transfigured with paintings and hanging textiles, have become worthy icons of the jasper walls of New Jerusalem. And the quality of light, from numerous candles, gilded icons, and warm brown logs, reveals the same uncreated glory as that in the great cathedral.
– Andrew Gould, from An Icon of the Kingdom of God: The Integrated Expression of all the Liturgical Arts, Pt. 4: Architecture. Orthodox Arts Journal, 2012
Featured image: source