Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin’s work is frequently seen as the central phenomenon of historicist architecture of the 19th century. Nevertheless, the historicist paradigm differs greatly from what is deduced out of Pugin’s writings. The aim of the following paper is to clarify Pugin’s relations with the antiquarian tradition of the previous centuries and to derive his notion of “truthfulness” in architecture from this tradition. There is also analyzed Pugin’s work as a writer and theorist of architecture, his professional psychology and leanings. A special place is given to consideration of Pugin’s conceptions described in his book “Contrasts”, which made the author famous. What is new in the development of this topic, it is its “antique” angle, given in the context of appeal to the intellectual history of that period and images of the contemporaries, predecessors and followers of the thinker. The article concludes that the value of Pugin as an architect is inferior to his contribution to the theory of architecture, and his creative life in whole can be called successful only partly.