DON鈥橳 look down. This is the Cervaiole marble quarry on Mount Altissimo, high in Italy鈥檚 Apuan Alps. Safely roped in, these workers are removing loose rocks that might fall when marble blocks weighing nearly 10,000 kilograms are removed.
Despite being more than a kilometre above sea level, the marble here was discovered by the Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo, who trekked up Altissimo鈥檚 slopes 500 years ago. He believed that the marble he found there 鈥� 鈥渃rystalline, reminiscent of sugar鈥� 鈥� may have been better than the Carrara marble he had used to carve his statue David.
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Michelangelo planned to use Cervaiole marble in designs for the San Lorenzo cathedral in Florence, so he set out trying to transport it down the mountain. But after three years of difficulty trying to establish a quarry and a connecting road, Pope Leo X cancelled the plans.
Three centuries later, the Henraux company established the Altissimo quarries that are still active today. Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore and Joan Mir脫 have all sculpted Altissimo marble, and the rock has been used to furnish St Peter鈥檚 Basilica in the Vatican and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.
Photographer
Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淢arble muse鈥�
