Wender·Vista
Notre-Dame de la Garde
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileFrance
on the limestone hill above old Marseille

Notre-Dame de la Garde

— — the Madonna the city looks up to.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“The Marseillais call her la Bonne Mère, the Good Mother. From a limestone peak south of the Vieux-Port she has watched the Mediterranean for a century and a half, the gilded Virgin on the bell tower visible from every approach to the city by sea. Sailors used to leave model ships at her feet. They still do.

from the studio
Notre-Dame de la Garde
— bring it home

Notre-Dame de la Garde, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Notre-Dame de la Garde

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Notre-Dame de la Garde stands on the highest natural point of Marseille, a 149-metre limestone outcrop south of the Vieux-Port. The current basilica, designed by Henri-Jacques Espérandieu in the Romano-Byzantine style, was consecrated in 1864 and replaced a sixteenth-century chapel that had itself replaced a thirteenth-century watch-shrine. The basilica is built of white limestone from the Cassis quarries and green-and-white stone from Florence, with a 41-metre bell tower crowned by an 11.2-metre gilded copper statue of the Virgin and Child.

— informed by Wikipedia, Basilica
— the stone

Espérandieu specified two principal stones for the layered exterior: a white Cassis limestone from the Calanques and a green Florentine serpentine, banded in horizontal courses that read clearly from the harbour below. The interior carries Byzantine-inspired mosaic floors and a vaulted nave restored after fire damage in 1944 and a comprehensive cleaning completed in 2008. The bell tower above the crypt holds the bourdon Marie-Joséphine, cast in 1845 and weighing 8,234 kilograms. The hill itself is karstic limestone, the same formation that defines the Calanques south of the city.

— informed by Basilica
— the visit

Entrance to the basilica is free, every day from seven in the morning to seven in the evening. The site is reached on foot from the Vieux-Port by a thirty-minute climb up Rue Cherchel and the Jardin du Pharo road, or by bus 60 from Cours Jean Ballard, which terminates at the basilica forecourt. The small Crypt Museum, opened in 2013, houses the votive offerings left by mariners across two centuries. The exterior viewing terrace gives the most complete panorama of the Frioul archipelago and the Calanques.

— informed by Marseille Tourism
— where
France · Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône
— elevation
149 m · 489 ft
— position
43.2839° N · 5.3711° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
1.2 km N
Vieux-Port
old harbour
0.8 km N
Abbaye Saint-Victor
abbey
8 km S
Calanques de Marseille
coastal park
N
Notre-Dame de la Garde
Vieux-Port
Abbaye Saint-Victor
Calanques de Marseille
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Notre-Dame de la Garde — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

The Marseillais have called the Virgin la Bonne Mère, the Good Mother, since at least the seventeenth century. The hill has held a shrine to her since 1214, and sailors and their families have prayed for safe return there for eight hundred years.

The bell tower rises 41 metres above the basilica roof and is crowned by an 11.2-metre gilded copper statue of the Virgin and Child. The hill below adds another 149 metres, making the Madonna visible from any approach to the city by sea.

Henri-Jacques Espérandieu, a Protestant architect from Nîmes, drew the Romano-Byzantine plan. Construction ran from 1853 to 1864 on a site that had held a Catholic shrine since 1214 and a Renaissance-era fort from 1525.

The crypt and nave hold hundreds of ex-voto offerings left by mariners and their families across two centuries: painted wooden panels recording shipwrecks survived, model boats and fishing vessels, and dedicated plaques in stone and brass.

From the Vieux-Port, a thirty-minute walk up Rue Cherchel, or city bus 60 from Cours Jean Ballard, which terminates at the basilica forecourt. The small tourist train from the harbour also climbs the hill in season.

— about the piece in your home

It carries well to anyone who has looked up at la Bonne Mère from the Vieux-Port. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio is a steady choice.

The cream limestone, marine blue, and Madonna gold read into three rooms cleanly: Coastal-modern, French Country, and Warm Minimalist. The piece holds against linen, raw oak, and white plaster.

Yes. The Provençal-revival current draws on exactly this palette: pale stone, deep sea, hammered metal. The piece functions as the anchor art in that scheme.

A single Large reads at twenty-four inches across; a four-tile Mural at thirty-six; a nine-tile Mural at fifty-four. Above a three-seat sofa, the four-tile Mural is the workhorse size.

Yes, in the Dura Satin or Matte finish. Both are scratch-resistant and engineered for vertical installation in wet rooms. Glossy is reserved for dry walls.

A soft microfibre cloth with water. No abrasive pads, no ammonia. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface beneath a thin glossy finish, so it will not lift with normal cleaning.

Yes. The Notre-Dame de la Garde piece, like every WenderVista vista, comes from a single studio in Knoxville, Tennessee. There is no licensing and no third-party art.

— if this one stayed with you

A few you might also love.

Hand-picked by the eye that found Sorapis. Same air, same kind of quiet.