The scanty land of Balakhna outskirts always yielded thin crops, and the residents of the district had to engage in various crafts and trade. Since the town was close to Nizhny Novgorod and, therefore, it was easy to sell the products, in the second half of the 16th century people of Balakhna mastered the production of Dutch tiles.
As the raw material for the tiles they used fire-clay that was mixed thoroughly to make it elastic and homogeneous and than frozen for the most of the winter. It was necessary to do to avoid cracking of the tiles during the burning in the furnace. But before the product, to the joy of the viewers, began to sparkle, the master, with tremendous patience and persistence, had realized his plan in wood, and only when the pattern was beautiful enough, transferred it to the clay.
First the tiles were of one color, and the color was green. Such tiles are still kept in Moscow, Yurievets, Katunki, Kostroma. Later masters adopted the technique of glyph.
Green tiles were used to revet architectural monuments and house ovens. They were quite manifold in terms of the material, technique, colors and patterns. Masters artfully combined the colors that seemed to be incompatible to get a harmonic unity. Many tiles were decorated with painted figures of people, birds, animals and fantastic beasts. The most well-defined forms have been achieved in depicting lions, peacocks, fairy-tale birds, plant patterns in blue, brown and violet colors. Such tiles are utterly wonderful.
In the beginning of the 18th century the craft got influenced by the West, and the Russian style of glyph was gradually ousted. The new trend affected Balakhna masters as well, and they started producing smooth tiles, on the surface of which painters made drawings. This technique was widely used for tiling house stoves. A tiled stove as an element of the interior decoration was no less important than beautiful furniture.
Stoves made by Balakhna masters may be found in various parts of Russia: Granovitaya Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, in Nizhny Novgorod, in the towns of Murom, Gorokhovets, Katunki, Puchezh, in the former chambers of the Romanovs in Kostroma. These tiled stoves may be justly compared to the masterpieces of famous artists.
Balakhna tiles were used to decorate churches, public buildings and window-frames.
Now an initiative group of scientists revives the technology of glazed tiles production that was forgotten years ago. It is planned to open production of items with glazed tiles made in accordance with the traditional technology in 2008.
