It was my turn to build a chimney in the village house. Ustai gave me an order to find fireproof bricks from Enver. Whose Enver? - I asked him, thinking that it must be the name of the factory owner.
"From Enver's era. From Enver's time," the master replied.
Why - I asked - are there no better ones today after 30 or so years?
"Yeah," he replied, "there are more like them."
Well, I started looking and saw that it wasn't easy to find them. With a little effort, I found half of the quantity I needed in old warehouses, including a half-ruined building over there in Këlcyra. Meanwhile, throughout this "journey" I always heard the same phrase - "Enver's bricks are the best. They don't compare to those that come from Greece or Italy."
Very curious about this judgment on the quality of Enver's bricks, I began to ask some of my friends who deal with restoration. They explained to me that bricks during Enver's time were prepared to a very high quality. The strict requirements of the account had meant that bricks still maintain a reputation as a commodity of the best quality to this day.
I would really like to say, for example, that my chimney built in 2025 was made with Berisha's bricks or even better with Edi Rama's bricks. But I'm not that lucky. The master who has worked for 25 years on the Greek islands is looking for nothing but "Enver's bricks"
Meanwhile, to my naive question about why they don't make such bricks anymore today, given the modern technology, they told me: Everywhere they cheat on quality, which is why today's bricks don't have much longevity. Meanwhile, the largest quantity of bricks comes from Greece or Italy since our factories have closed.
So, these 35 years we continue to "eat" Enver's bricks? If you're lucky enough to find them, because in terms of quality they are the best on the market.