Carrara marble - Wikipedia

Carrara marble, also known as Luna marble to the Romans, is a highly prized white or blue-grey marble renowned for its use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the majestic mountains outside Carrara, in the northernmost tip of modern-day Tuscany, Italy.

More marble has been extracted from the over 650 quarry sites near Carrara than from any other place. The pure white statuario grade of Carrara white marble, celebrated for its exceptional quality, was the preferred choice for monumental sculpture due to its high tensile strength, ability to take a high gloss polish, and capacity to hold very fine detail.

Carrara marble has been a cornerstone of artistry and architecture since Ancient Rome, where it was known as marmor lunense, or "Luni marble". Its exceptional properties, including remarkable tensile strength, a superior ability to achieve a high polish, and the capacity to capture intricate detail, made it the ideal material for the grand structures and detailed sculptures of the era. For instance, the Pantheon in Rome features extensive use of Carrara marble, showcasing its durability and aesthetic appeal. Similarly, Trajan's Column and the Column of Marcus Aurelius, both adorned with intricate relief carvings, demonstrate the marble's suitability for detailed artistic expression.

In the Middle Ages, the Marquis Malaspina owned the majority of the quarries. He leased them to families of Carrara marble traders who sourced from local quarrymen and resold it in the Venetian market, establishing a robust commercial network that exported the marble to distant locales. For example, starting in 1474, the Maffioli and later the Buffa supplied the marble for the facade of the Certosa di Pavia. They oversaw the material's transport by ship, which, after circumnavigating Italy, reached the monastery's construction site via the Po and Ticino rivers by boat. From the 16th century onwards, Genoese stonecutters and merchants also joined this thriving trade.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the marble quarries were overseen by the Cybo and Malaspina families, who governed the Duchy of Massa and Carrara. The family established the "Office of Marble" in 1564 to regulate the marble mining industry. The city of Massa underwent significant urban redesign, with new roads, plazas, intersections, and pavings, all intended to elevate its status as a capital city. Following the extinction of the Cybo-Malaspina family, the state came under the rule of the House of Austria-Este, who also managed the mines. Massa Cathedral is constructed entirely of Carrara marble, and the old Ducal Palace of Massa served as a showcase for the stone.

By the close of the 19th century, Carrara marble had been a cornerstone of artistry and architecture since Ancient Rome.

The quarry workers and stone carvers held radical beliefs that distinguished them. Anarchism and general radicalism became an integral part of the heritage of the stone carvers. Many violent revolutionists expelled from Belgium and Switzerland found refuge in Carrara in 1885, where they founded Italy's first anarchist group. In Carrara, the anarchist Galileo Palla famously remarked, "even the stones are anarchists." The quarry workers were the primary instigators of the Lunigiana revolt in January 1894.

The Apuan Alps above Carrara bear the marks of at least 650 quarry sites, with approximately half currently abandoned or depleted. The Carrara quarries have yielded more marble than any other location on Earth.

Working in the quarries has always been a perilous undertaking. In September 1911, a collapsing cliff face at the Bettogli Quarry tragically crushed 10 workers who were on their lunch break beneath a precipice. A 2014 video filmed at a Carrara quarry depicts workers with missing fingers and others performing hazardous, painfully noisy tasks without any protective gear. These dangerous conditions, including the risk of rockfalls, cave-ins, and the inhalation of marble dust, have historically plagued quarry work, leading to severe health issues and fatalities among laborers throughout the centuries. The lack of safety regulations and protective equipment, especially in earlier periods, exacerbated these dangers, making quarrying one of the most hazardous professions of its time.

The most prized yield from the Carrara quarries throughout millennia has been statuario, a pure white marble. The coloration in other marbles typically arises from the intermixture of minerals present in the limestone as it undergoes transformation into marble through heat or pressure. The Carrara quarries also extract and ship marble with distinctive black or grey streaks.

Carrara marble encompasses a variety of distinct types, each with unique characteristics and applications. The most common are Bianco Carrara, classified into C and CD variations, along with Bianco Venatino and Statuarietto. These are by far the most common types of marble with a more pronounced grey or bluish-black coloration, and have been utilized since Roman times for architectural facings and flooring.

The exquisite marble from Carrara was employed in the construction of some of Ancient Rome's most remarkable structures:

• Temple of Proserpina – later repurposed in numerous buildings in Valletta

• The Pantheon

• Trajan's Column

During the Renaissance, Carrara marble encompassed a variety of distinct types, each with unique characteristics and applications. The most common are Bianco Carrara, classified into C and CD variations, along with Bianco Venatino and Statuarietto. These are by far the most common types of marble with a more pronounced grey or bluish-black coloration, and have been utilized since Roman times for architectural facings and flooring.

• Marble Arch, London, UK

Carrara marble has been recognized by the International Union of Geological Sciences as a Global Heritage Stone Resource.

Calcite, derived from an 80 kg sample of Carrara marble, is utilized as the IAEA-603 isotopic standard in mass spectrometry for the calibration of δ18O and δ13C.

Carrara marble has been prominently featured in various forms of media and entertainment. Notably, its distinctive quarries serve as a dramatic backdrop in the film TheBrutalist.

• Replica of the Robba Fountain at Town Square, Ljubljana. The sculptural part of the fountain is crafted from Carrara marble, the obelisk from local Lesno Brdo limestone, and the pool from local Podpeč limestone.

• Parisian chimneypiece, c. 1775–1785, Carrara marble with gilt bronze, height: 111.4 cm, width: 169.5 cm, depth: 41.9 cm

• The Hill of Hope monument in Onomichi, Hiroshima, is beautifully landscaped with five thousand square metres of Carrara marble.

• Staircase, Glasgow City Chambers

TheMicrococcus has the ability to colonize Carrara marble by forming a biofilm and producing gluconic, lactic, pyruvic, and succinic acids from glucose, a phenomenon observed in the Dionysos Theater of the Acropolis in Athens.

• No Cav

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Newman, Cathy (July 1982). "Carrara Marble: Touchstone of Eternity". National Geographic. Vol. 162, no. 1. pp. 42–59. ISSN 0027-9358. OCLC 643483454.

Media related to Marble quarry, Carrara at Wikimedia Commons

The original source for this article is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrara_marble.