Re: portuguese marble
On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 09:33:59AM -0400, Gary Grossman wrote:
> Hi, does anyone know anything (locations, possibility of visiting, etc.) of
> Portuguese marble, or other stone quarries, in particular the ones that
> quarry Portuguese pink, or any other interesting stone? cheers, g2
Portuguese marble is found around the villages of Evora, Villa Vicosa
and Borba in the east of the country (almost on the spanish border,
about 150km east of Lissabon). If you don't speak Portuguese, find
someone who does as it makes getting around and getting in contact so
much easier. Also, there is probably a steep trade-off between the time
you want to spent buying stone (talking to people) and the price you
pay. Sorry, I cannot help you with addresses. I was driven around by a
local sculptor (don't think he lives there anymore, has been more then
10 years since I was there). Be sure to check the quality of the stone
for carving yourself as most people in the stone industry there only
know the quality for making tiles and such. Besides pink/salmon/orange
there are lovely shades of cream/white, grey/black and there should also
be a yellow, black veined marble (around Evora). Parts of the mostly
flat countryside are dominated by long hills of inferior quality marble,
near the quarries you might get lucky if your looking for smaller pieces
that are considered waste anyway.
Somewhere in the region they have a good quality chalkstone with only
millimeter sized marine inclusions and a colour like cafe-latte.
More to the south (I think) they also have a mostly black granit.
When I was there, the region wasn't a big tourist attraction at all.
There was accomodation to be had, though, and the people were very
helpfull when approached politely. Perhaps the younger people now speak
English, the elder only a little French perhaps and some Spanish - but
be aware that Spanish is the language of the big loud brother and not
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