Wender·Vista
Volgograd
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileRussia
on the right bank of the Volga, where the great bend turns south

Volgograd

— — the hill that still holds 1943.

— 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 the Volga turns at, and the city the Battle of Stalingrad was fought through. Mamayev Kurgan rises above the embankment, the Motherland Calls statue still among the tallest figures in the world. The river is the second character, wide and slow and the same colour at every distance.

from the studio
Volgograd
— bring it home

Volgograd, 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 Volgograd

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

Volgograd lies on the right bank of the Volga River in southern Russia, about 900 kilometres south of Moscow, with a population of roughly one million. Founded in 1589 as the fortress of Tsaritsyn, it was renamed Stalingrad in 1925 and Volgograd in 1961. The city is the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast and stretches more than 80 kilometres along the riverbank, one of the longest urban footprints in Russia, because it grew in a thin band between the Volga and the steppe.

— informed by Wikipedia — Volgograd
— the stone

Mamayev Kurgan, the central memorial complex, was opened on 15 October 1967 to mark the 1942-1943 battle in which roughly two million combatants and civilians died. The crowning statue, The Motherland Calls, by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and engineer Nikolai Nikitin, rises 85 metres from base to sword-tip, for years the tallest free-standing sculpture in the world. Below it sit the Hall of Military Glory, the eternal flame, and the ruined walls of the Grain Elevator left as they fell. The complex remains a working pilgrimage site, not a museum.

— the water

The Volga is Europe's longest river, 3,531 kilometres from the Valdai Hills to the Caspian Sea, and at Volgograd it is already near the end of its journey. The Volga-Don Canal, opened in 1952, joins the two rivers here and gives Moscow a working sea route to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. River cruises run between Moscow and Astrakhan from May to October. In winter the river ices along the banks, but the central channel stays open thanks to the Volgograd Hydroelectric Station upstream.

— where
Russia · Volgograd, Volgograd Oblast
— elevation
80 m · 262 ft
— position
48.7080° N · 44.5133° 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 N
Mamayev Kurgan
memorial hill
10 km S
Volga-Don Canal
shipping canal
370 km S
Astrakhan
Caspian delta port
N
Volgograd
Mamayev Kurgan
Volga-Don Canal
Astrakhan
— common questions

What people ask.

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

The city was renamed Stalingrad in 1925 in honour of Joseph Stalin. It carried that name through the 1942-1943 battle and reverted to Volgograd in 1961 during Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation programme.

An 85-metre allegorical statue of a sword-raising woman atop Mamayev Kurgan, unveiled in 1967 to commemorate the Battle of Stalingrad. Designed by Yevgeny Vuchetich, it was the tallest statue in the world at its completion.

The Volga at Volgograd is roughly 1.5 kilometres wide and within 400 kilometres of its mouth at the Caspian Sea. Europe's longest river, the Volga runs 3,531 kilometres from source to delta.

The five-month battle from August 1942 to February 1943 in which Soviet forces encircled and destroyed the German Sixth Army. It is widely regarded as the turning point of the Second World War on the Eastern Front.

Volgograd stretches more than 80 kilometres along the Volga's right bank but only a few kilometres inland, hemmed in between the river and the dry steppe. It is one of the longest urban footprints in Russia.

— about the piece in your home

It has carried meaning for customers with ties to the city, especially those whose grandparents lived through the battle. The Mamayev silhouette is instantly recognisable. A Medium with a studio note tends to be the right scale.

The piece reads best in Library, Maximalist, and warm Industrial interiors. The grey-and-amber stained-glass palette holds against oxblood, deep navy, or unfinished brick, and softens against pale plaster.

Cities defined by 20th-century history (Berlin, Hiroshima, Volgograd, Sarajevo) have moved into a more reflective register on recent mood boards. The piece reads as elegy rather than monument.

A single Large carries a standard sofa or a console table. For a wider room a 4-tile Mural reads as one image at six feet across, and a 9-tile Mural takes a full feature wall.

Yes. Choose the Dura Satin or Matte finish for any wet room. Both are scratch-resistant and wipe clean with a microfibre cloth.

A dry or barely damp microfibre cloth handles ordinary dust. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, so it does not lift or fade under normal cleaning.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is painted in-house at our Knoxville studio and is not licensed from any third party. The stained-glass visual language is original to Wender Studios.

— if this one stayed with you

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