Wender·Vista
Temple of Concordia
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileItaly
on the ridge above Agrigento, in southern Sicily

Temple of Concordia

— — a Greek temple the centuries forgot to take down.

— 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

“One of the best-preserved Doric temples anywhere in the Greek world, standing on a low ridge above the sea south of Agrigento. Built around 440 BCE, repurposed as a Christian church in the sixth century, and so kept up rather than quarried for stone. The colonnade still runs almost intact: thirty-four columns, the entablature, the pediments. Almond trees come into flower around it in February, before anything else in Sicily. At low sun the limestone turns the colour the Greeks chose this stone for.

from the studio
Temple of Concordia
— bring it home

Temple of Concordia, 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 Temple of Concordia

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

The Temple of Concordia stands on a low ridge in the Valle dei Templi, the archaeological park that runs along the southern edge of Agrigento in Sicily. The ancient Greek city, Akragas, was founded around 580 BCE and grew into one of the wealthiest in the western Mediterranean. The temple was built around 440 to 430 BCE in the peak Doric style, a peripteral hexastyle on a stylobate of about 39 by 17 metres. The original dedication is unknown; the name Concordia comes from a Latin inscription found nearby and has stuck since the eighteenth century. UNESCO inscribed the valley in 1997.

— the stone

The temple is built of local calcareous tufa, a porous, honey-coloured limestone quarried from the ridge itself. In antiquity the stone was finished with a thin layer of white stucco to imitate marble; that surface is gone, leaving the warm raw rock the building is now famous for. Six columns front and back, thirteen down each flank, the entablature and both pediments survive almost intact. The reason is unusual: in 597 the Bishop of Agrigento, Gregorio delle Rape, consecrated the temple as the church of Saints Peter and Paul, walled in the colonnade, and kept the structure under continuous use. Nineteenth-century restoration removed the walls and returned the open Greek plan.

— the visit

The Valley of the Temples is open year-round, with extended evening hours from spring through autumn that let visitors see the temples lit against the dark hillside. Tickets cover a 1,300-hectare archaeological park; the Concordia, Juno, and Heracles temples stand along a single ridge walk of about two kilometres. Spring is the prized season: the Mandorlo in Fiore festival, first held in 1934, marks the almond blossom in early February and fills the valley with white flower against warm stone. Agrigento Centrale station is about three kilometres uphill from the park entrance; a regular city bus runs between them.

— where
Italy · Agrigento, Sicily
— within
Valley of the Temples
— position
37.2903° N · 13.5894° 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 E
Temple of Juno
Doric Greek temple
1 km W
Temple of Heracles
Doric Greek temple
15 km NW
Scala dei Turchi
white limestone cliff
N
Temple of Concordia
Temple of Juno
Temple of Heracles
Scala dei Turchi
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Temple of Concordia — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

It was built around 440 to 430 BCE, at the height of Greek Sicily. Akragas, the city that built it, had been founded about 140 years earlier in 580 BCE.

Bishop Gregorio of Agrigento consecrated the temple as a Christian church in 597 CE, walling in the colonnade. The structure was kept under continuous use for over a thousand years, sparing it from being quarried for stone.

Almost certainly not. The original Greek dedication is unknown. The name comes from a nearby Latin inscription mentioning concordia and was attached to the building in the eighteenth century.

Local calcareous tufa, a honey-coloured porous limestone quarried from the same ridge. In antiquity it was coated in fine white stucco to imitate marble; the stucco has weathered away.

Early February. The Mandorlo in Fiore festival, first held in 1934, celebrates the bloom in the Valley of the Temples and is one of the oldest folk festivals in Sicily.

On the southern ridge of Agrigento in southern Sicily, inside the Parco Valle dei Templi archaeological park. The provincial capital sits uphill, the sea about three kilometres south.

— about the piece in your home

Yes. The Valley of the Temples is one of the cultural addresses of the island; for someone Sicilian, or for a classicist, the Concordia reads as home. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio carries well.

The honey-limestone golds and Mediterranean sky-blues suit warm coastal-modern rooms, Old-World Mediterranean interiors, and minimalist spaces with one strong terracotta or ochre anchor.

Yes. The current return of warm Mediterranean, coastal-Italian, and Provençal-stone palettes all read this kind of golden-limestone subject as a natural focal point.

Above a standard sofa, a single Large carries the wall; for a longer wall, a 4-tile Mural reads as one painting. Above a console, a Medium centred is usually the right scale.

Yes, in Dura Satin or Matte finish. The colour is infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, beneath a thin glossy finish, so steam and water do not affect it.

A soft microfibre cloth and water. No solvents, no abrasives. The surface is hand-finished in the studio and meant to be lived with.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is painted in our own visual language, chosen by Reid Wender, and finished in the studio in Knoxville. We do not license outside artwork.

— 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