Carrara
View of mountain and quarries
The Carrara marble quarries have been exploited since more than 2000 years. Carrara marble is very famous for the statuary quality, used by all the most famous sculpturers in the world ( Michelangelo, Canova, etc.). The first peak of extractive activity was in the roman period, during the imperial age the demand for Carrara marble rose since it became the most requested building stone for public buildings.
View from the village of Colonnata
at times the open quarries appear as it were a glacier
it could be an alpine village
Since then Carrara was a synonymous of marble and its marble was requested worldwide for buildings, statues, objects, etc. Till now, about one million tons of Carrara marble are quarried each year a simple stone as compared to what the mountain reserves.
Production in roman times was slow. Slaves cut marble blocks with hand saws at a rate of 1 cm a day. Until modern times little technical progress was done. Cubic marble blocks of up to 10 tons were cut and then carted down the mountain to the port of Carrara where they were shipped to destination.
Cutting a block
Transport
Monument to miners, Colonnata
Modern machines are used nowadays, heavy lorries transport the blocks down to the shops that will cut them or shape them into statues.
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