columnar grained ceramic in particular consisting essentially of a stabilized or partly stabilized zirconia as explained above the thermal barrier layer 2 is anchored to the substrate 1 by means of an intermediate layer 3 the intermediate layer 3 is made by placing a bonding layer 4 on the substrate 1 which bonding layer 4 consists of an mcraly alloy and preferably of an mcraly alloy as disclosed in one of u s pat nos 5 154 885 5 268 238 5 273 712 and 5 401 307 and developing an anchoring layer 5 on the bonding layer 4 as explained subsequently the bonding layer 4 has certain functions in common with a bonding layer as known from the state of the art and in particular has a tight bond to the substrate 1 the anchoring layer 5 serves as an anchor for the thermal barrier layer 2 both the bonding layer 4 and the anchoring layer 5 form the intermediate layer 3 the drawing is not intended to show the thicknesses of the layers 4 and 5 to scale the thickness of the anchoring layer 5 might in reality be very much less than the thickness of the bonding layer 4 and amount only to a few atomic layers as specified hereinabove the anchoring layer 5 essentially consists of an oxide compound namely alumina doped with nitrogen the nitrogen content need not be very high and a nitrogen content of a few atom percent is considered.