The Legend of Chișinău
Demolished
A 1973 glass-smalt mosaic by Mihai Burea on the gable end of a building on Constantin Negruzzi Square (No. 2), beside the Cosmos Hotel — one of his most admired works. The panel evoked the legend of Chișinău: two allegorical figures — a maiden holding a flowering staff and a helmeted man — rise above an old town of houses, a fortress and a bridge over a river, framed by a ram with stylized flowers, birds in flight and horsemen. Its palette is warm and earthy (ochre, brick-red, olive-green) with turquoise accents on a light ground. It is one of only two Burea mosaics taken down from demolished Chișinău buildings — the other being “Arta”. The building (owned by the company PROMILTON) was pulled down around 2021 and the panel dismantled. Unlike “Arta”, which was reinstalled by the Opera, “The Legend” has yet to find a new home — a fate eased by the fact that only the mosaic, not the building, was listed as a monument.
- Track
- Lost & Relocated
- Neighborhood
- Centru
- Artist
- Mihai Burea
- Year
- 1973
- Building
- Bloc locativ, scuarul Constantin Negruzzi 2 (demolat)
Photos: photobankmd (CC0)