The first mention of a village and churches on Kizhi Island occurred in chronicles four hundred years ago. Beginning with the sixteenth century, Kizhi was the administrative center of a large region with a total population of 10.000.

In 1714 the 22 domed Church of the Transfiguration was built with the funds donated by parishioners. In 1764, the Church of the Intercession rose up beside it. The third building of the ensemble is a well-proportioned belfry, which gives the complex balance and completeness. People embodied its idea of the world in these religious constructions. The cathedral, the church and the chapel represent a model of the Universe.

These monuments more than 250 years supported the antireligious hysteria of 1930 and the times of war. In 1945 the Kizhi Pogost was declared to be a state reserve. The aim of the stage was to develop transfer of "the unique monuments of secular architecture” to the adjacent area. Between 1948 and 1960, the first restoration of the architectural ensemble of the pogost was carried out. The first piece of architecture, the Oshevnev’s house was moved to Kizhi Island. That was the beginning of the open-air museum of history and architecture.

In 1961 the department of the State Museum of Karelian Soviet Socialist Autonomous Republic the Kizhi reserve was opened. The Kizhi State Museum of History and Architecture was opened on the basis of the department of the State Museum of Karelian Soviet Socialist Autonomous Republic in 1965.Between 1969 and 1988, the Kizhi State Museum of History and Architecture was reorganized as the Kizhi State Museum-Reserve of History, Architecture and Ethnography. The General plan of the Kizhi Museum development was approved. The design of detail planning of the Kizhi Museum was approved. And the state zoological reserved was declared on the site of the Kizhi complex.

In 1990 the architectural ensemble of the Kizhi Pogost and the surrounding architectural and landscape environment within the limits of the protected area of the museum was included into the World Heritage List of UNESCO. In 1993 by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation the Kizhi museum reserve was included into the Federal List of objects of special value of the heritage of the peoples of Russian Federation, the architectural monuments of the Kizhi complex became the federal property and an integral Service of the protection of the Kizhi Museum was established.

Today Kizhi has been turned into an open air museum of wooden architecture. The chapels, peasant houses and windmills, brought from adjacent villages, complement the main ensemble and at the same time show the diversity of methods, types and forms of old Russian's architecture, which combines age old traditions with creative imagination.