ABOUT MARBLE...

It is a renowned, esteemed material used for interior decoration, architecture and art.

However, working it was not easy once.

First, it needed to be extracted from the mountain, a very risky operation since powerful explosives were used in order to do it.
Only in the early 20th century explosives were replaced by the "helicoidal wire", a safer tool immediately emploied in big quarries but for decades almost unknown to small quarrymen who kept on using the usual (dangerous) method.

Then, using gravel and hammer, skilled workers squared the marble block ready at this point to be delivered at destination on trucks dragged by oxes or horses.

At present, the "diamond wire" easily allows to extract and square marble blocks, while modern trucks are used for their transportation.

Also cutting and polishing, previously done manually, are today carried out by special machines.

Every step of the manufacture is nowadays completely automatic, except carving that still demands precision, care and especially imagination.