Our Lady of the sign chapel in Korba. Problems of research and chronological attribution

The authors made an attempt to determine the date of the chapel’s erection and its further reconstruction by the complex chronological attribution approach towards historic timber structures. The approach integrates architectural and dendrochronological analysis. The date of the chapel’s erection was determined by an in-situ inspection and a typological analysis based on the architectural- archeological scale for dating of Karelian churches and chapels. Data on the painting time of the chapel’s icons (the icon board with the chapel’s icon of Our Lady of the Sign, chapel’s sky icons and the latest icons painted in 1940’s) was taken into account. The research revealed two building stages in the chapel’s history. The eastern part and the lower narthex were built at the second part of the XVIII century. The passage with a belfry built over its western part was added in the second half of the XVIII - first half of the XIX centuries. Denrochronological analysis showed that the structure was built from young trees with a wide-ringed wood. It enabled identification of the samples’ exact dating. Two possible dates of the tree logging were obtained - 1765 and 1824, the presence of two building stages was not revealed. The incompatibility between architectural and dendrochronological data requires further investigation of the structure. At present, the chapel may be dated by a wide time interval - from the second half of the XVIII to the first half of the XIX centuries, with uncertain dates for the second construction stage due to the lack of evidence for the chapel’s reconstruction, namely the addition of the passage and the belfry.