The church has 22 domes and with a height of 37 meters is one of the tallest wooden buildings in Northern Europe. Its perimeter is 20×29 meters. It is considered that the 18-dome church on the southern shore of Lake Onega — built in 1708 and destroyed by fire in 1963 - was its forerunner. According to the Russian carpentry traditions of that time, the Transfiguration Church was built of wood only with no nails apart from the domes and roof shingles. There are approximately 180,000 nails securing the 60,000 roof shingles. All structures were made of scribe-fitted horizontal logs, with interlocking corner joinery — either round notch or dovetail — cut by axes. The basis of the structure is the octahedral frame with four two-stage side attachments (, "prirub" from "rubit" meaning "to cut wood"). The eastern prirub has a pentagonal shape and contains the altar. Two smaller octagons of similar shape are mounted on top of the main octagon. The structure is covered in 22 domes of different size and shape, which run from the top to the sides. The refectory is covered with a three-slope roof. In the 19th century, the church was decorated with batten and some parts were covered with steel. It was restored to its original design in the 1950s.