it is a typical feature of east slavic churches, especially the onion curved domes in russia. it is also the predominant form for church domes in ukraine (mostly on eastern orthodox churches), and is common in belarus. occasionally there are similar buildings in european countries like in germany in bavaria, (german: "zwiebelturm" (literally "onion tower") in austria, the czech republic, northeastern italy, in other eastern european countries and in oriental regions like mughal india, the middle east and central asia. however, usually the old buildings outside of russia do not have the distinctive typical construction of the russian onion design. probably the origin lies in the native architectural style of early rus' tribes.