Wender·Vista
Taranto
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileItaly
on the Ionian coast of Puglia, where the old city sits on an island between two seas

Taranto

— — the city the sea folds in half.

— 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 port city on the inner curve of Italy's heel, founded as the Greek colony of Taras in the eighth century BC. The Città Vecchia sits on a small island between the Mar Grande and the Mar Piccolo, joined to the mainland by a swing bridge. Aragonese stone, two Doric columns from a Temple of Poseidon, mussel farms in the inner sea, and the long shadow of the Castello at the channel. — from the studio

from the studio
Taranto
— bring it home

Taranto, 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 Taranto

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

Taranto is a port city of about 190,000 in southern Italy's Apulia region, on the inner curve of the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea. It was founded by Spartan settlers as Taras around 706 BC, making it one of the older continuously inhabited cities in Europe, and was a leading polis of Magna Graecia before falling to Rome in 272 BC. The old city, Città Vecchia, sits on a small island between two lagoons; the modern city stretches across the mainland to the east and west.

— informed by Wikipedia, Treccani
— the stone

Two Doric columns on Via Duomo are all that remains above ground of the Temple of Poseidon, dating to the early sixth century BC and the oldest Greek temple ruin in Magna Graecia. The Castello Aragonese, built on Norman foundations and rebuilt by Ferdinand II of Aragon between 1486 and 1492, guards the channel between the two seas; the Italian Navy has held the keys since 1887. The Cathedral of San Cataldo, consecrated in 1071, holds Apulia's oldest Romanesque bell tower at the centre of the old town.

— the water

The Mar Piccolo, the inner lagoon, is a shallow brackish basin fed by submarine freshwater springs called citri; its mussel farms have supplied Italian tables since at least the Bourbon era and now yield around 30,000 tonnes a year. The Mar Grande, the outer bay, opens onto the Gulf of Taranto and serves the commercial port and the naval base. The Ponte Girevole, the iron swing bridge built in 1887, opens for ships passing between the two seas and is one of the few of its kind still working in Europe.

— where
Italy · Taranto, Puglia
— elevation
15 m · 49 ft
— position
40.4644° N · 17.2470° 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.
18 km NW
Massafra
rupestrian town
22 km NE
Grottaglie
ceramics town
35 km E
Manduria
Messapian town
31 km N
Martina Franca
baroque hill town
N
Taranto
Massafra
Grottaglie
Manduria
Martina Franca
— common questions

What people ask.

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

On the inner curve of the Gulf of Taranto in Italy's Apulia region, the instep of the country's heel. It's about 100 kilometres south-east of Bari and faces the Ionian Sea.

The old city sits on an island that separates the inner Mar Piccolo lagoon from the outer Mar Grande bay. A natural channel, now spanned by the Ponte Girevole swing bridge, links them.

The Spartan colony of Taras was founded around 706 BC, making Taranto roughly 2,700 years old. It was one of the wealthiest cities of Magna Graecia before Rome annexed it in 272 BC.

Greek and Roman antiquities (the National Archaeological Museum holds the Ori di Taranto gold collection), Mar Piccolo mussels, the Aragonese castle, and the long-contested ILVA steelworks on the city's edge.

April through June or September through October. Summers are hot, winters mild. Holy Week processions, with hooded perdoni walking through the old town overnight, draw visitors from across southern Italy each spring.

— about the piece in your home

It carries well for that. Taranto is the older soul of the Apulian coast, and the piece reads as Greek-Italian rather than tourist-Italian. A Medium with a handwritten note from the studio lands the connection.

Mediterranean-modern interiors first, with warm plaster walls and dark wood. The stained-glass palette also sits well in Jewel-tone Maximalist rooms, and the sea-blues pull the piece into Coastal-modern when the rest of the room runs lighter.

Mediterranean Revival has been one of the steadier interior currents of the last few years, and Italian-coast pieces with real history behind them sit well in it. Taranto's Aragonese stone and Doric columns give the piece architectural weight.

A single Large reads well above a console table; for a sofa wall, a 4-tile or 9-tile Mural carries the proportion better and lets the two-seas geography stretch across the width of the piece.

Yes. For wet rooms we recommend the Dura Satin or Matte finish, both scratch- and humidity-resistant. The colour lives in the ceramic surface, so steam and splashes don't affect it.

A soft microfibre cloth and a little water. Wipe gently with the grain of the tile. Avoid abrasive sponges and chemical sprays — the finish doesn't need them and isn't designed for them.

— 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