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The study of the vernacular architecture of Maramureș has always struggled with the chronology of wooden constructions. Dendrochronology provides reliable dating, independent from the scarcity of historical sources, and regardless of the limits of the art science. The current study presents a recent dendrochronological investigation performed at the old wooden churches in the village of Apșa de Mijloc, in Ukraine (official name: ...). As a result, two of the most iconic and enigmatic wooden churches in Maramureș and by large in the Carpathians reveal their true age for the first time. The two old wooden churches are differentiated by their position in the village as the lower church and the upper church. The results rewrite their story and offer the possibility to analyze and re-evaluate them in the framework of the sacred architecture of Maramureș. This study aims first to clarify specific steps applied in the dendrochronological dating process in order to refine the results. The next discussion takes up some general aspects related to dating in the wooden churches of Byzantine rite in the region. In order to interpret the dendrochronological data correctly, it is necessary to distinguish between two specific steps in the process of building wooden churches in Maramureș. Dendrochronology always records the moment the trees were felled. The construction follows thereafter. The heavy log body, on one side, and the light structures of the tower and the roof, on the other side, seem to be built with at least one year in between. Another aspect to consider is the religious consecration process, which usually marks the birth date of a church in inscriptions. Consecration date can appear delayed in relation to dendrochronological results. The dendrochronological results in the lower church in Apșa de Mijloc record the felling year for the timbers in the log construction in the winter of 1641-1642, and for the wood in the light roof and tower structure in the following winter. Thus, the lower church must have been finished in about 1643. One remarkable exception makes a beam from winter 1530-1531 which should best be interpreted as timber from an older construction reused to provide the structure of the tower with extra strong dried wood. A second exception is provided by a rafter dating a repair of the roof after the winter of 1698-1699. This later dating matches an inscription on the southern wall of the church from July 9, 1699. Historical data also records a large repair of the church in 1770 that it was not registered in the samples from the church. The repair might be identified in the sills of the construction by future research. In the upper church in Apșa de Mijloc, the results signal the most probable felling date of the logs in the winter of 1704-1705. The timbers for the light roof and for the tower structure were felled within the next winter and even in the summer of 1706. A historical record states that the church was consecrated in 1705. This record provides evidence that the consecration act could have been arranged in between the two steps of building construction when needed. A single sample points out a later repair, that occurred in the apex of the vault above the nave. The felling date for that beam was the winter of 1772-1773. This dating overlaps with the investment into a mural painting and the completion of the iconostasis with new royal icons in the following years. Dendrochronology was first applied in the region of Maramureș in 1997. Since then, a handful of projects were accomplished on both sides of Maramureș, in Romania and Ukraine. Yet, there are still several churches in need of chronological dating. Each time, the method provides new data and enables progress in the understanding of the regional heritage. For example, the lower church in Apșa de Mijloc can be added now to a group of similar churches from the same time, in Slătioara (1639), Sârbi Susani (1640) and Budești Josani (1643). Probably they were all built in a row by the same itinerant master carpenter, who signed in Budești Josani as Gozdă Ion. The upper church in Apșa de Mijloc shows that some old medieval features were still in use at the time of its construction. The characteristic short spires in both churches are most probably the result of later simplifications, yet more research at their structures must be conducted. Both wooden churches are in need of careful conservations. There is an emergency situation in the upper church, where the roof covering has to be changed while the iconostasis from 1761, painted by the painter Ștefan of Tereblea, displays an increased state of decay, in some parts next to collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]