Wender·Vista
Magdeburg
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileGermany
on the Elbe, in Saxony-Anhalt

Magdeburg

— — a city that kept rebuilding the river back.

— 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

“A river city that has been knocked down and put back up more times than most. The cathedral on the bluff is the older silhouette; the candy-coloured Green Citadel down the street is the newer one. Between them the Elbe moves north, slow and brown, the way it always has. The studio reads Magdeburg as two centuries arguing in one skyline, with the water unbothered underneath. — from the studio

from the studio
Magdeburg
— bring it home

Magdeburg, 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 Magdeburg

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

Magdeburg is the capital of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, about 130 km west of Berlin, set on the west bank of the Elbe River. The city has roughly 240,000 residents and traces a continuous record back to 805 CE, when Charlemagne mentioned it in the Diedenhofen Capitulary. Otto I made it a seat of power in the 10th century; his tomb still rests inside the cathedral. The flat Magdeburg Börde farmland surrounds the city to the west, and the Elbe runs north toward Hamburg and the sea.

— informed by Wikipedia — Magdeburg
— the stone

Magdeburg Cathedral, finished in 1520, is the oldest Gothic cathedral in Germany and the burial site of Emperor Otto I. The sandstone is pale, almost bone-coloured in low sun, and the twin western towers reach 99.25 metres. A few blocks south, Friedensreich Hundertwasser's Green Citadel from 2005 answers the cathedral in pink stucco, gold cupolas, and trees growing out of the roof. The two buildings disagree about almost everything and somehow share a postcard.

— the year

The city was nearly erased twice. In 1631, during the Thirty Years' War, Imperial troops sacked it and killed an estimated 20,000 of about 25,000 residents, an event European pamphlets called the Magdeburg Wedding. On 16 January 1945, an RAF raid destroyed roughly 90 percent of the medieval centre in under 40 minutes. Reconstruction ran through the GDR decades in plattenbau concrete; the post-1990 years added the colour back. The cathedral, against the odds, stood through both.

— where
Germany · Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt
— elevation
43 m · 141 ft
— position
52.1205° N · 11.6276° 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.
75 km SW
Wernigerode
Harz town
60 km SW
Quedlinburg
UNESCO old town
60 km SE
Dessau
Bauhaus city
N
Magdeburg
Wernigerode
Quedlinburg
Dessau
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Magdeburg — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Magdeburg is the capital of Saxony-Anhalt in central Germany, on the Elbe River about 130 km west of Berlin and 150 km east of Hannover. It has around 240,000 residents.

Finished in 1520, it is the oldest Gothic cathedral in Germany and holds the tomb of Otto I, the 10th-century Holy Roman Emperor who made Magdeburg an imperial seat.

The Grüne Zitadelle is a pink residential and commercial block designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, completed in 2005. It has irregular windows, gold cupolas, and trees planted on the roof terraces.

A 17th-century Magdeburg mayor and physicist who, in 1654, demonstrated atmospheric pressure with the Magdeburg hemispheres, two copper bowls that teams of horses could not pull apart once the air was pumped out.

An RAF bombing raid on 16 January 1945 destroyed about 90 percent of the medieval old town. Reconstruction continued through the East German decades and again after reunification in 1990.

Yes, it is roughly 90 minutes by ICE train from Berlin Hauptbahnhof. The cathedral, the Green Citadel, and a walk along the Elbe fit comfortably in a single day.

— about the piece in your home

Many of our customers send a piece to relatives who left the city after the war or after 1990. A Small or Medium in Glossy carries the cathedral silhouette clearly and travels well in a flat mailer.

The palette suits mid-century European, restored-industrial, and warm minimalist rooms. The pale sandstone and Elbe greens sit comfortably against oak, walnut, and unbleached linen.

The cathedral-and-river silhouette reads as quiet European-modern. It works in the same rooms as Bauhaus prints and pale-wood Scandinavian furniture without competing for attention.

A single Large reads well over a console or reading chair. Above a standard three-seat sofa, a 4-tile Mural or 9-tile Mural carries the river horizon at the right scale.

Yes. Order the Dura Satin or Matte finish for any humid or splash-prone wall. Both resist scratching and clean with a damp microfibre cloth.

A soft microfibre cloth and plain water. No abrasive pads, no ammonia. The colour is sealed under the surface, not painted on top.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is painted in-house by Reid Wender in the studio's stained-glass and alcohol-ink visual language. Nothing in the atlas is licensed from another artist.

— if this one stayed with you

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