Wender·Vista
Messina
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileItaly
across the strait from Calabria, at the top of Sicily

Messina

— — a city that had to be built twice.

— 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 city at the top of Sicily, where the strait narrows to three kilometres and the ferries cross all day to the mainland. The 1908 earthquake took almost everything, and what stands now was rebuilt in the decades after. At noon the astronomical clock on the cathedral tower runs through its figures while the pigeons lift off the piazza.

from the studio
Messina
— bring it home

Messina, 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 Messina

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

Messina sits at the northeast tip of Sicily, facing Calabria across a three-kilometre strait. The Greek settlers who founded it in the eighth century BC called it Zancle, for the sickle shape of its harbour. The morning of 28 December 1908, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake and the tsunami that followed killed roughly eighty thousand people and levelled most of the city. The present grid was laid out in the rebuild, and the cathedral square, with its restored Duomo and the largest astronomical clock in the world, remains the centre. The metropolitan area holds around two hundred thirty thousand.

— the stone

The Duomo di Messina was consecrated in 1197 under the Normans, destroyed in the 1908 earthquake, rebuilt, burned in the 1943 Allied bombing, and rebuilt again. Its campanile carries an astronomical clock installed in 1933 by the Ungerer brothers of Strasbourg, widely said to be the largest mechanical clock in the world. At noon each day a gilded lion roars, a rooster crows, and the figures of Dina and Clarenza strike the bell. The Fountain of Orion, carved by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli in 1547, still stands in the piazza outside.

— the water

The Strait of Messina is the channel Homer wrote as Scylla and Charybdis, the rock and the whirlpool that menaced Odysseus. The real currents are real: the tide reverses every six hours, and the meeting of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas throws up standing eddies the local fishermen call bastardi. Swordfish are still hunted from passerelle, the tall-masted boats with a long bow walkway, between April and August. The car ferries to Villa San Giovanni run from the Rada San Francesco terminal roughly every forty minutes.

— where
Italy · Metropolitan City of Messina, Sicily
— elevation
3 m · 10 ft
— position
38.1938° N · 15.5540° 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 km C
Duomo di Messina
Norman cathedral
1 km C
Fountain of Orion
Renaissance fountain
12 km NE
Cape Peloro
narrowest point of the strait
50 km S
Taormina
clifftop town
12 km E
Reggio Calabria
city across the strait
N
Messina
Duomo di Messina
Fountain of Orion
Cape Peloro
Taormina
Reggio Calabria
— common questions

What people ask.

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

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck at 5:20 am on 28 December 1908, and the tsunami that followed killed an estimated eighty thousand people. It remains the deadliest earthquake in European history; most of the city was rebuilt afterward.

Installed in 1933 by Ungerer of Strasbourg, it is widely considered the largest and most complex mechanical clock in the world. At noon a sequence of gilded figures, a lion, and a rooster perform on the campanile.

The strait between Sicily and Calabria is the channel Homer described in the Odyssey as the lair of the rock-monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. Strong tidal currents reverse here every six hours.

About three kilometres at its narrowest point, between Cape Peloro on the Sicilian side and Punta Pezzo in Calabria. Car ferries cross in roughly twenty minutes and run through the night.

Zancle, from the Greek word for sickle, for the curved shape of its natural harbour. Greek colonists founded the city in the eighth century BC; it later passed through Roman, Norman, Spanish, and Bourbon rule.

May, June, September, and October. July and August are hot and the ferry queues swell with mainland traffic. The noon clock performance runs daily and is the easiest single thing to plan a morning around.

— about the piece in your home

It has been a meaningful piece for customers whose families came through Messina before emigrating. A Small with a handwritten note from the studio carries well; the Medium is the common gift size for grandparents.

The terracotta, sea-blue, and limestone palette sits naturally with Mediterranean Modern, Italian Coastal, and warm Minimalist interiors. Less suited to cool Nordic schemes or strict monochrome rooms.

Yes. The current Mediterranean-modern moment pulls toward named-place artwork over generic lemon-and-olive prints. A Large of a real Sicilian port does the work better than a stock coastal scene.

A single Large reads well above a console. Above a standard three-seat sofa, a four-tile Mural or nine-tile Mural carries the wall; a Medium sits at the right scale for a reading nook or bedside.

Yes, in Dura Satin or Matte. Both finishes resist scratching and humidity and are intended for vertical wet installations. The Glossy finish belongs on framed wall pieces away from steam.

A microfibre cloth with water. The colour lives in the ceramic surface, so most household cleaners would not harm it, but skipping ammonia and abrasives extends the life of the finish.

Yes. Reid Wender paints every WenderVista piece in our Knoxville studio; nothing is licensed in. The work is hand-finished and slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure.

— 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.
— a collection

The Italian Dolomites,
painted slow.

The valleys between Cortina and Val Gardena, the tarns you walk an hour to see, the towers that turn the colour of a banked fire just before dark. Wander the collection by valley, by season, or follow the path Reid walked.

Tre Cime
Braies
Misurina
Sorapis
Cinque Torri
Sassolungo
Marmolada