The Marble Quarry

Marble Quarry at Massa Carrara

On the Apuan Alps, the amazing marble quarries show an evocative image. Here, the precious white stone has being mined since Roman times. Since then it has been put to many uses: to create simple things but also famous masterpieces of art and architecture.
In the past the marble blocks were carried using the old manual technique called "la lizzatura", commemorated every year thanks to the courage and the skill of the last living "lizzatori" (name given to this particular skill). In the art workshops in Carrara, in the Marble museum and in outdoor events , you can closely see the history and marble processing taking place. These unique and splendid white marble quarries seen as an image of a moon infront of the very eyes of it's visitors: entering the very heart of the moutain, it is possible to touch this precious material which was the favorite stone of Michelangelo and Canova.



The Marble museum of Carrara is extraordinary which collects Roman artifacts founded in the quarries, tools and machines used during the centuries to excavate and process this stone across the capital, parts and pieces of columns worked by the slaves: they are the first examples of industrial civilization.
A large plaster cast which summarizes a tumultuous and varied life on the squares; in some rooms that forms the marble library, there are numerous samples of marble and granite deriving from various backgrounds