
town of Colonnata (Italy),
Photo by Alessandro Gandolfi/Panos
At the foot of an impressive marble quarry in the Apuan Alps of central Italy lies the village of Colonnata (pictured above). The village is a quaint place famous for its pork lard and quarry workers. Stones taken from outside the nearby city of Carrara, such as the white marble quarry pictured below, are widely regarded as the purest and most valuable in the world.

Photo by Alessandro Gandolfi/Panos
Before the introduction of modern technology, giant marble blocks were moved down mountainsides by hand using cables, ropes, and sleds in a method known as the “Rizzatura,” as recreated in the image below. It was being carried.

Participants will take part in a “Historic Lizzatura”.
Photo by Alessandro Gandolfi/Panos
“Since the time of the Roman Empire, marble has been considered the best in the world,” says photographer Alessandro Gandolfi, who has documented the story of the highly sought-after material in his projects. land of marble. “The world’s greatest sculptors, like Michelangelo, came to choose these marbles for their sculptures.”

Sculpture students work on clay models at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Photo by Alessandro Gandolfi/Panos
Centuries after the Italian Renaissance, marble remains the go-to material for artists. In the image above, students at the Carrara Academy of Fine Arts first hone their sculpting skills in clay.
In addition to its use as art, Carrara marble is often ground and used as calcium carbonate to make products such as paper, paint, fertilizer, and toothpaste.
However, marble mining is not without environmental impacts. “We’re extracting a little too much marble today,” Gandolfi says. “If we continue like this, the mountains will be completely destroyed in 500 years.”
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(Tag translation) Art