CARRARA MARBLE: The finest Italian marble has an interesting history

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Riccardo Giannetti who has closely followed the Carrara scene from Italy and also photographed the mines extensively, informs about the history and underlines the fact that despite technology what makes Carrara marble special is the human eye of the quarryman that still is the arbiter of quality and expertise.

The term ‘Italian marble’ is often used as a general term for fine and high end marble product in India. Such is the allure for Italian marble that consumers in India often insist on having it incorporated in their interiors by name.

Carrara in Italy is from where some of the finest and superior marble is extracted, finished and exported. It was around 48 before Christ that the Marble from Luni (the ancient Roman town that is now better known as Carrara) began to be used in Roman patrician houses, because it was a material of great value. That was the beginning of a real invasion of marbles from Luni towards Rome and it immediately spread its influence across Italy and the world.

In that age, the richest Roman families were in a real competition to furnish their houses and country villas with columns and statues furnishing in white marble. This trend reached its pitch under Emperor Ottaviano Augusto. Svetonio, his chronicler, wrote that emperor Ottaviano had inherited a Rome made of bricks and left it built in marble. Imperial Rome was therefore dotted with temples, baths, arcades that were all places with a great deal of statues.

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Excavation and mining

The excavation system they used in those ages was comparatively simple and derived from the experience the Romans had acquired in the quarries all over the Mediterranean Basins. They used simple means; in fact, they exploited the nature cracks in the rocks which were finally reached through one or more “caesure”.

These caesures consisted of a series of cuts made with sledgehammers and chisels, due to get an 80 cm wide cutting and enough deeps in order to reach the natural fracture in the rock. Then, using iron wedges and stakes, the block was overturned. In the XIV and XV centuries the trend took off in right earnest and that started the golden ages for the Carrara Marble.

The demand for the marble of Carrara grew more and more each passing year. All the cities in the Tuscany region of Italy were in competition to get the white material (marble) and it was in early in 14th century that they began to build the wonderful churches and cathedrals we still can admire in Florence, Pisa, Arezzo, Siena and Lucca.

It was exactly the same period that many great artists as Michelangelo would come and choose personally the blocks of marble while staying for a long time in the city of Carrara. In the half of 15th century the extraction techniques began to change too, in fact with the invention of the gunpowder they started to use it in the making of mines to detach marble blocks.

First technological changes

That system brought a great change in the marble industry helping the increase in quantity of marble extracted. The XIX century was undoubtedly very important for marble economy as a consequence of the numerous technological innovation of the period, also for the contribution of an English contractor, William Walton, who was the progenitor of those great number of English traders who would follow his example.

The competition with the local contractors deeply transformed the local economy and marble engineering. Late in 1800, the “marble railway” was born which boosted the transport of the marble blocks from the quarry to the plain. Until that time, the blocks were laid down to the loading spots and then carried to the plain on oxen drawn carts.

The whole railway was about 20 km long, excluding the links to the marble sawmills and the marble yards which extended for more than 10 km. It started from the sea and reached the highest point at 455 mt on the sea-level, with a slop of 36% and sometimes up to 60%.

There were 15 tunnels, 4167 mtrs long on the whole and, since there were a lot of crags to overcome, they built 16 bridges some of which stood out for their spectacular beauty and height engineering particularly. “Ponti di Vara” (Vara Bridges) inserted in a unique landscape. This fantastic engineering work was dismantled in 1969, and great changes involved the transports.

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Roads and technology

They built roads going up to the “ravaneti” (heaps of marble wastes) and leading straight to the quarry. They increased the introduction of mechanical meals, especially bulldozer which made work easies, and trucks which loaded blocks and carried them directly to the sawmills.

Local authorities subjected the quarries to closer controls and established rules for marble extraction for instance, they were obliged to keep the “tecchie” (the upper side of the mountain above the quarry) clean to prevent any dangerous falls of stones, otherwise they were subject to stop working. That was a guarantee of safety for the people working in the quarry.

Chain saw technology

There were also two main innovations which increased marble extraction: the first was the introduction of the chain-saw and the second the diamond wire. The first consisted in an adjustable mobile arm upon which a toothed chain ran. The mobile arm was then connected to an engine that ran the chain at great speed. In consequence of the abrasive action, it cut marble as deep as 4 mt and as long as one wished because the motor-driven loom ran on a rail. The second (diamond wire saw) exploited the abrasive power of the diamond bushes inserted into a flexible wire which moving at a very high speed, cut the marble easily.

Of course all those technical innovations on quarry yards represented a great advantage for marble industry, but they also meant the disappearance of some typical quarrymen characters, today replaced by mechanics and electro-technicians who are so important to keep the machines helping the quarrymen in working order.

Therefore there’s no doubt that while technological innovations have been of great help for the people working in the quarries, yet, the “art of the marble quarrying” still remain a human prerogative.

Today, exactly like 2000 years ago, only a skilful quarryman can recognise and draw the precious white marble, used and envied everywhere in the world, out of the mountain simply from its colour or from its vein.

(The author is a photographer specialised in industrial pictures, in particular regarding marble’s factories and runs his studio – Centrofoto Carrara in Carrara, Italy. He has written a number of books regarding the story of Marble quarries.)