„Scarlet Sails” mosaic, Gymnasium No. 31
A ceramic-tile mosaic panel on the facade of Gymnasium No. 31 at șos. Muncești 400, in the Botanica district. Muncești road was the first street travellers saw on arriving in Chișinău by train or plane, which is why so many buildings along it were given mosaics — the guide Alexandru Pavlov even built a whole walking tour around them. The work has no fixed title: two readings circulate — „Romance of the Scarlet Sails” and „Romance of the Revolution”, or more simply „Scarlet Sails” and „the Budyonny helmet”. The composition, in blue tones, fuses a romantic motif — the scarlet sails of Alexander Grin's 1916 novella, a symbol of dream and hope that the USSR re-read as an image of striving toward the ideal — with Soviet revolutionary symbolism: a Budyonovka helmet and a Soviet boy blowing a bugle. It is laid in ceramic tile, chosen for its strength and durability, and survives only in part — a section of the panel has crumbled away. Its author and year are undocumented; the work is not listed in the „Mosaics of Moldova” inventory (AO Salvați Chișinăul) and is known mainly from Alexandru Pavlov's photo series and a 2026 diez.md article.
- Track
- Botanica Walk
- Neighborhood
- Botanica
- Building
- Gimnaziul nr. 31, șos. Muncești 400, Botanica