In Rostov-on-Don, participants of the Tom Sawyer Fest festival are restoring the mosaic panel "The Balkans"
Volunteers have begun restoring the mosaics that adorned the popular Balkan restaurant during Soviet times. Together with specialists, they removed 20 square meters of mosaic—40 tiles—and transported them to a workshop, where restoration work is underway under the supervision of a professional restorer.
As told "NotMoscow" restorer Marina YablonskayaThe panel depicted Balkan motifs: a man and woman in national costumes, a tree—a symbol of the homeland—jugs, and plates. They will be faithfully reproduced from the surviving pieces of smalt, with the addition of new ones, as some were lost due to vandalism.
According to Yablonskaya, the restoration will take about a year, during which time volunteers, working with city officials, will find a suitable location in the city center for the 3,6-meter-tall mural.
“We want the city to have a single tourist route – all three of our sites in a complex with each other and with other mosaics in Rostov: the passages, the panels at the Central Market, the puppet theater»,” the festival organizer told a NeMoskva journalist. "Tom Sawyer Fest Rostov-on-Don" Daria Maksimovich.
Festival Tom Sawyer Fest – an all-Russian volunteer movement for the restoration of historical environments. The project is already restoring its third mosaic group in Rostov. In 2021, they gave new life to the Florentine mosaic sculpture group "Fish and Wave," and in 2022, to the fountain on Pushkinskaya Street.
