shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileUkraine

on a pond in the rolling fields of western Ukraine, east of Lviv

Ternopil

Name: Ternopil — on ceramic tile, by WenderVista
Brand: WenderVista

— — the city the water bends around.

— 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

— 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 western Ukrainian city built around a single body of water, the Ternopil Pond, dug as a defensive moat in 1548 and now the green centre of a city of two hundred thousand. The old castle still sits on the bank. Ternopil has been Polish, Austrian, Soviet, and Ukrainian inside five centuries, and rebuilt itself after the Second World War almost from rubble.

from the studio

— bring it home

Ternopil, 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 Ternopil

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

Ternopil sits on the Seret River in western Ukraine, about 130 kilometres east of Lviv and 350 kilometres west of Kyiv. The city was founded in 1540 by the Polish hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski as a fortified market town on the eastern frontier of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Ternopil Pond, formed by damming the Seret in 1548, was part of the original defensive works and now anchors the city centre. The population is roughly 220,000, and the city is the administrative seat of Ternopil Oblast in the historical region of Galicia.

— informed by Wikipedia

— the stone

The Old Castle on the western bank of the pond is the oldest standing building in the city, raised by Tarnowski between 1540 and 1548 as a defensive bastion against Crimean Tatar raids. It was reworked into a Neo-Gothic palace in the nineteenth century by the Polish Korzeniowski family, gutted in 1944, and rebuilt as municipal offices after the war. The Dominican Church on Mickiewicz Square, completed in 1779 in the late Baroque, is the oldest intact religious building in the centre. Much of the surrounding ensemble is post-war Soviet reconstruction over the pre-war Polish street plan.

— informed by Encyclopedia of Ukraine

— the year

Ternopil's calendar moves with the pond. Summer brings rowing regattas, paddleboats, and an open-air theatre on the western embankment. The city's largest festival, Ternopilski Teatralni Vechory, fills the old quarter with theatre and street music across three weeks each September. In winter the pond freezes thick enough for skating along the centre embankment. The Christmas markets on Teatralna Square run from early December through Orthodox Christmas in January, with carollers, koliada singing groups, and the wooden Bethlehem scenes that Galician Christmas is known for.

— informed by Ternopil City Council

— where

Ukraine · Ternopil, Ternopil Oblast

— position

49.5535° N · 25.5948° 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.

0.1 km center

Ternopil Pond

reservoir

0.3 km W

Old Castle

castle

70 km N

Pochaiv Lavra

monastery

Ternopil

Ternopil Pond

Old Castle

Pochaiv Lavra

— common questions

What people ask.

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

— about the place

Ternopil is a city of roughly 220,000 in western Ukraine, about 130 kilometres east of Lviv and 350 west of Kyiv. It is the administrative seat of Ternopil Oblast, in the historical region of Galicia.

Ternopil was founded in 1540 by the Polish hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski as a fortified market town on the eastern frontier of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Ternopil Pond was dug in 1548 as part of the original defensive moat.

A reservoir formed by damming the Seret River in 1548. It runs roughly seven kilometres through the city, anchors the historic centre, and serves as the principal recreation space for residents in summer and a skating ground in winter.

Ternopil was the site of a siege from March to April 1944 between Soviet and German forces, leaving roughly 85 percent of the city in ruins. Most of the current centre is post-war Soviet reconstruction on the pre-war Polish street plan.

Within Ukraine, Ternopil is known for the pond and its embankments, for the Old Castle, for the Ternopil Theatre Evenings festival each September, and as a cultural centre of the southern Galician borderland.

— about the piece in your home

It carries well to anyone with ties to Galicia or to the diaspora communities of Toronto, Chicago, and New York that trace back to this region. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio is a steady choice.

The pond green, slate, and ochre brick read into three rooms cleanly: Eastern European Modern, Warm Minimalist, and Folk-Modern. The piece holds against linen, dark oak, and embroidered textile.

Yes. The current Ukrainian-design movement draws on Galician palette and folk-pattern restraint. The piece sits as anchor art in that scheme without imitating a printed photograph.

A single Large reads at twenty-four inches across; a four-tile Mural at thirty-six; a nine-tile Mural at fifty-four. The four-tile Mural is the workhorse above a three-seat sofa.

Yes, in the Dura Satin or Matte finish. Both are scratch-resistant and engineered for vertical installation in wet rooms.

A soft microfibre cloth with water. No abrasive pads, no ammonia. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface beneath a thin glossy finish, so it will not lift with normal cleaning.

Yes. The Ternopil piece, like every WenderVista vista, comes from a single studio in Knoxville, Tennessee, with no licensing and no third-party art.

— if this one stayed with you