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# When anyone begins to praise Metlakh tiles to excess, remember this passage from the report of the architect-restorer Pyotr Pokryshkin to the Imperial Archaeological Commission on his inspection of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery of Zvenigorod…
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/kogda-kto-to-nachinaet-chrezmerno-voskhvaliat-metlakhskuiu-plitku-vspominaite-etot-otryvok-iz-raporta-arkhitektora-restavratora-petra-pokryshkina-imperatorskoi-arkheologicheskoi-komissi/
- Published: 2021-02-10T08:25:05.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:41:35.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Architecture, Faith, Heritage, Humour

“I found the painting of the monastery's bell tower complete. To my great regret, the painting has been done in oil paints in the former pale pink, banal colour, without the permission of the consistory, and consequently before the Commission's opinion was received. Having learnt from an architect of my acquaintance that over the well in the monastery there stands a remarkable wooden chapel, supposedly built by the Venerable Savva himself, I went to inspect this rarest of monuments, but, alas, on the spot I found in its place a new creation with a touch of decadence. On inspecting the monastery cathedral inside, one is outraged to the depths of one's soul by the new Metlakh floor, laid in the most recent times in place of the handsome cast-iron slabs. If monuments so distinguished are treated in so barbarous a fashion, what is to be expected of those to whom monuments of lesser significance have been entrusted? I would consider it necessary to demand in the most decisive form the removal of the oil paint and the return of the cast-iron slabs to their former place.”