diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 45c86656c5bc6e0ae3e49621e43494c98272c696..6bd77576cc2c0fad2f44a89cc0ccf2d75edb1c2e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 * certified for Python 3.11 and 3.12
 * CI moved to GitHub Actions
+* downgraded Mako, since newer Mako requires Python 3.8
 
 # v1.5
 
diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
index d7fad24941e23a7ed86305d050fd845e5cd5216c..f0145139731eacb0370f8698e716628d818c009a 100644
--- a/docs/index.rst
+++ b/docs/index.rst
@@ -82,6 +82,12 @@ or
 Otherwise :code:`PyInit` won't be generated by Cython
 and such module will be unimportable in Python. Normal import won't suffice.
 
+Please install Snakehouse in a separate venv. This is because it requires an ancient version of
+the templating library Mako_, because newer versions requires Python 3.8, and I wanted
+Snakehouse to support older Pythons as well.
+
+.. _Mako: https://pypi.org/project/Mako/1.1.0/
+
 Contributions
 =============
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index efe15f8c4a55b5764d3d986efab0ae2192187e5e..6a00477c18114da76428090b7fcd4c59eee17833 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 Cython
-mako
-satella>=2.14.46
+mako==1.1.0
+satella
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 8ef9bfcc39301bf82915d5769d9165e1f4d7283a..6cd163450899c074b96c593350daf7f37ef0c266 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ classifier =
 [options]
 install_requires =
     Cython
-    mako
+    mako == 1.1.0
     satella
 
 python_requires = !=2.7.*,!=3.0.*,!=3.1.*,!=3.2.*,!=3.3.*,!=3.4.*