Quarrying Carrara Marble

Heavy machinery quarries out 60 000 tons of white marble each year.

Quarrying carrara marble. Carrara marble quarries tour map guide to visiting the quarries above carrara. Operations at the canalgrande quarries. On our carrara marble quarries tour. In carrara there are several marble caves on top of each other and they have to leave columns and follow a specific layout to prevent the mountain from collapse.

Touring the marble mines in the apuan alps in northern tuscany is an incredible visual experience which is why the location was chosen for the chase scene in the james bond film quantum of solace. The pantheon and the trajan s column in rome are built of carrara marble. Discover the fantastic carrara marble quarries in tuscany on a 4 4 jeep. The family created the office of marble in 1564 to regulate the marble mining industry.

From 20 000 men working the carrara quarries in inhumane conditions about 60 years ago today barely 500 men extract more marble than ever in the carrara region well paid and working in a high profit industry. After centuries of disruption the extraction and processing of carrara marble resumed. Moreover you will taste the delicious lardo di colonnata in the nearby village colonnata. Carrara marble has been used since the time of ancient rome and it was called the luni marble.

Some 65 000 tons of marble on average are extracted per year. Bought a large stake in one of carrara s largest quarries. Carrara and the marble civilization. The famous white stone is.

In the 17th and 18th centuries the marble quarries were monitored by the cybo and malaspina families who ruled over massa and carrara. It s not a place for mother nature. I found rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble marmoream relinquo quam latericiam accepi many sculptures of the renaissance the david from michelangelo amongst many others were also carved in marble blocks extracted from the carrara s quarry. A famous saying of augustus is.

The canalgrande marble quarry 1 000 meters above sea level. The ancient romans discovered 2 000 years ago the presence of this white and shiny stone in the mountains we now call the apuan alps. The marble quarries in carrara employ 5 000 people who quarry 25 000 tons of marble on a monthly basis she stated in a monotonous voice that made it hard to listen. Although the film footage below of work in the quarries of carrara shown here is contemporary it powerfully evokes the arduous physical work the dangers at hand and the large scale of the stones.

Rome the imperial capital was rebuilt using the white marbles that thousands of slaves dug worked and transported to these mountains. Discovering the carrara marble quarries has given a completely new dimension to our way of appreciating stone sculptures. The carrara region alone has 150 such stone quarries. The city of massa in particular saw much of its plan.