Carrara marble is a type of white or blue-grey marble of high quality, popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It is quarried in the city of Carrara located in the province of Massa and Carrara in the Lunigiana, the northernmost tip of modern-day Tuscany, Italy.
Video Carrara marble
History
Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the marble quarries were monitored by the Cybo and Malaspina families who ruled over Massa and Carrara. The family created the "Office of Marble" in 1564 to regulate the marble mining industry. The city of Massa, in particular, saw much of its plan redesigned (new roads, plazas, intersections, pavings) in order to make it worthy of an Italian country's capital. Following the extinction of the Cybo-Malaspina family, the state was ruled by the House of Austria and management of the mines rested with them. The Basilica of Massa is built entirely of Carrara marble and the old Ducal Palace of Massa was used to showcase the precious stone.
By the end of the 19th century, Carrara had become a cradle of anarchism in Italy, in particular among the quarry workers. According to a New York Times article of 1894, workers in the marble quarries were among the most neglected labourers in Italy. Many of them were ex-convicts or fugitives from justice. The work at the quarries was so tough and arduous that almost any aspirant worker with sufficient muscle and endurance was employed, regardless of their background.
The quarry workers and stone carvers had radical beliefs that set them apart from others. Anarchism and general radicalism became part of the heritage of the stone carvers. Many violent revolutionists who had been expelled from Belgium and Switzerland went to Carrara in 1885 and founded the first anarchist group in Italy. In Carrara, the anarchist Galileo Palla remarked, "even the stones are anarchists." The quarry workers were the main actors of the Lunigiana revolt in January 1894.
Maps Carrara marble
Notable monuments and buildings
- The marble from Carrara was used for some of the most remarkable buildings in Ancient Rome:
- The Pantheon
- Trajan's Column
- Column of Marcus Aurelius
- Many sculptures of the Renaissance:
- Michelangelo's David (1501-04)
- The statue to Robert Burns, which commands a central position in Dumfries, was carved in Carrara by Italian craftsmen working to Amelia Paton Hill's model. It was unveiled by future UK Prime Minister Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery on 6 April 1882.
- Marble Arch, London
- Some sections of the Palace of the Marqués de Dos Aguas, Valencia, Spain
- Prem Mandir, Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India
- Duomo di Siena, Siena, Italy
- Sarcophagus of St. Hedwig, Queen of Poland, Cracow, Poland
- Manila Cathedral (interior), Manila, Philippines
- First Canadian Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Abu Dhabi, UAE
- Harvard Medical School buildings, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Oslo Opera House, Oslo, Norway
- Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial (Crosses and Stars of David), Normandy, France
- Peace Monument, Washington, DC, USA
- King Edward VII Memorial, Birmingham, UK
- Akshardham, Delhi, India
- Aon Center (Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
- Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
- Robba Fountain, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Finland
- Devon Tower, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
- The Rotunda (University of Virginia), Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- Palacio Legislativo (Uruguay), the seat of the Uruguayan Parliament
- Far Eastern University, Manila, Philippines - Administration Building
- The Rome Italy Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Glasgow City Chambers, Scotland
Quarries
The Apuan Alps above Carrara show evidence of at least 650 quarry sites, with about half of them currently abandoned or worked out. The Carrara quarries have produced more marble than any other place on earth.
Working the quarries has been dangerous and continues so to this day. In September 1911, a collapsing cliff face at the Bettogli Quarry crushed 10 workers who were on lunch break under a precipice. A 2014 video made at a Carrara quarry shows workers with missing fingers, and workers performing hazardous, painfully noisy work who are not wearing protective gear of any kind.
The prize yield from Carrara quarries through millennia has been Statuario, a pure white marble (coloring in other marbles arises from intermixture with other minerals present in the limestone as it is converted to marble by heat or pressure). However, by the end of the 20th century, the known deposits of Statuario near Carrara are played out. The quarries continue to remove and ship up to a million tons/year of less-esteemed marble, mostly for export.
Bianco Carrara classified in C and CD variations as well as well as Bianco Venatino and Stauarietto are by far the most common types with more expensive exotic variations such as Calacatta Gold, Calacatta Borghini, Arabescato Cervaiole and Arabescato Vagli quarried throughout the Carrara area.
Use in isotopic standard
Calcite, obtained from an 80 kg sample of Carrara marble, is used as the IAEA-603 isotopic standard in mass spectrometry for the calibration of ?18O and ?13C.
Gallery
Degradation
The black yeast Micrococcus halobius can colonize Carrara marble by forming a biofilm and producing gluconic, lactic, pyruvic and succinic acids from glucose, as seen in the Dionysos Theater of the Acropolis in Athens.
See also
- List of types of marble
- Lizza di Piastreta
- Marmifera di Carrara railway
- Lardo, a culinary specialty of the Carrara region commonly cured in Carrara marble basins
Notes
References
- Goldthwaite, Richard A. (2011). The Economy of Renaissance Florence. JHU Press. ISBN 0801889820.
Further reading
- Newman, Cathy (July 1982). "Carrara Marble: Touchstone of Eternity". National Geographic. Vol. 162 no. 1. pp. 42-59. ISSN 0027-9358. OCLC 643483454.
External links
- Media related to Marble quarry, Carrara at Wikimedia Commons
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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