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38-612: The museum is housed in the Constantin Mihail Palace, built from 1898 to 1907 according to the plans of French architect Paul Gottereau. The palace once belonged to Michael Constantine (1837–1908), a member of one of the richest families in Romania and is known as Jean Mihail Palace. The palace is decorated with Carrara marble stairs, Lyon silk walls, Murano glass chandeliers, painted ceilings, partly gilded stucco , and Venetian mirrors. It has hosted kings of Romania, in 1939

76-531: A New York Times article of 1894, workers in the marble quarries were among the most neglected labourers in Italy. Many of them were ex-convicts or fugitives from justice. The work at the quarries was so tough and arduous that almost any aspirant worker with sufficient muscle and endurance was employed, regardless of their background. The quarry workers and stone carvers had radical beliefs that set them apart from others. Anarchism and general radicalism became part of

114-641: A last administrative change, in 1806, the French emperor assigned the Duchy of Massa and Carrara to the Principality of Lucca and Piombino , governed by his older sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi . In 1809 the honorary title of Duke of Massa di Carrara was granted by Napoleon to the former Minister of Police, Claude Ambroise Régnier . During the Napoleonic domination Maria Beatrice d'Este (who had succeeded her mother in 1790)

152-549: A member of an influential family of Genoese aristocrats . Pope Innocent VIII (Lorenzo's grandfather) belonged to it and they were related to the Medici ( Pope Leo X , Lorenzo's uncle, had himself arranged the Malaspina marriage, together with Lorenzo's elder brother, Cardinal Innocenzo Cybo ) . From the marriage the new Cybo-Malaspina family originated, which was to rule the states of Massa and Carrara until 1829. The marriage, however,

190-500: A premium, and also because of the luxurious and extravagant lifestyle of the nobleman, the economics of the Duchy was brought to its knees. The financial situation recovered only by dynastic union between the families of the Malaspina and the Este, achieved with the marriage of Maria Teresa and Ercole d'Este in 1741. From that date, the Duchy of Massa and Carrara gradually lost its political autonomy, going to gravitate more and more closely into

228-541: A pure white marble (coloring in other marbles arises from intermixture with other minerals present in the limestone as it is converted to marble by heat or pressure). However, by the end of the 20th century, the known deposits of statuario near Carrara were played out. The quarries continue to remove and ship up to a million tons/year of less-esteemed marble, mostly for export. This is predominantly streaked with black or grey. Bianco Carrara classified in C and CD variations as well as Bianco Venatino and Statuarietto are by far

266-557: A tendency to silt up and after a few years the construction work had to be suspended. In 1807 Napoleon's engineers built the important mail road to the Foce, to link the cities of Massa and Carrara through the inland hills. During the Napoleonic rule were also initiated other public works such as the bonification of the plains, the plantation of coastal pine trees to combat malaria and arrangement of river banks. These works were continued by Maria Beatrice and successors in subsequent decades. In 1821

304-504: A variety of paintings by important Romanian masters such as Theodor Aman , Nicolae Grigorescu , Vasile Popescu , Ștefan Luchian , and Theodor Pallady , together with some Romanian icons. The palace is listed as a historic monument by Romania's Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs . 44°19′09″N 23°47′35″E  /  44.3191529°N 23.792917°E  / 44.3191529; 23.792917 Carrara marble Carrara marble , or Luna marble ( marmor lunense ) to

342-511: The Via Vandelli , starting as early as 1738. In 1751, was made a first attempt for the excavation of a dock and the construction of a port in the city of Carrara. The port would have been functional to the trade and military activities of the Este, would have housed in a safe place the small fleet of the Duchy of Modena and, finally, would have been essential to free the marble exports from dependence of other nearby ports. The coast, however, had

380-650: The Dionysos Theater of the Acropolis in Athens . Duchy of Massa and Carrara The Duchy of Massa and Principality of Carrara ( Italian : Ducato di Massa e Principato di Carrara ) was a small state that controlled the towns of Massa and Carrara from 1473 until 1836. Although the city of Massa had already known its maximum medieval splendor in the 11th century with the Marquisate of Massa and Corsica ruled by

418-574: The Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Republic of Genoa . Alberico I brought large urban restructurations in the cities of Carrara and Massa, mainly for prestige reasons. Both cities were equipped with new city walls - with representative functions, rather than military, since the policy of the territory was not expansionist - and new ducal palaces. In Carrara was established the Office of Marble (1564), to regulate

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456-557: The International Union of Geological Sciences as a Global Heritage Stone Resource . Calcite , obtained from an 80 kg sample of Carrara marble, is used as the IAEA -603 isotopic standard in mass spectrometry for the calibration of δ O and δ C. The black yeast Micrococcus halobius can colonize Carrara marble by forming a biofilm and producing gluconic , lactic , pyruvic and succinic acids from glucose , as seen in

494-508: The Marquisate of Fosdinovo ), which were not re-established, were also bestowed upon her, but she handed them over almost immediately to her son and heir Francis IV, Duke of Modena . In 1829, on the death of Maria Beatrice, the Duchy of Massa and the Principality of Carrara were annexed to the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, led by her son Francis IV of Austria-Este. In 1860, with the deposition,

532-750: The Obertenghi family , the original nucleus of the state was officially born on 22 February 1473 with the purchase of the Lordship of Carrara by the Lordship of Massa in the time headed by the Marquis Jacopo Malaspina, who obtained it from Count Antoniotto Fileremo of Genoa , progenitor of the Fregoso line. The noble title of the Malaspina family therefore became that of Marquises of Massa and lords of Carrara. From

570-749: The Po and the Ticino by boat. Starting from the 16th century, Genoese stonecutters-merchants also entered this flourishing trade. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the marble quarries were monitored by the Cybo and Malaspina families who ruled over the Duchy of Massa and Carrara . The family created the "Office of Marble" in 1564 to regulate the marble mining industry. The city of Massa , in particular, saw much of its plan redesigned (new roads, plazas, intersections, pavings) in order to make it worthy of an Italian country's capital. Following

608-622: The English engineer and tycoon William Walton. In 1846 the Count Francesco del Medico proposed to the Duke Francis V the construction of the Marble Railway of Carrara, to link the marble quarries to the sea and thereby facilitating the transport of blocks to the areas for sorting, loading, and shipping. This project was also suspended for lack of funds. The Marble Railway was finally built after

646-483: The Este Land Registry was established, with the task of regulating and listing the properties of the inhabitants of the duchy. The years following the annexation to the Duchy of Modena were particularly complex, both for the insurrectional riots that characterized the historical period, and for the economic crisis, which have long gripped the region. The rulers tried several times to exit the stagnation in promoting

684-583: The Este were deprived of their possessions by the troops of Napoleon . The latter incorporated the territory into the Cispadane Republic , which later became the Cisalpine Republic . During this period the region was briefly disputed against Napoleon by the Austrians of the anti-French coalition (1799) and experienced a rapid succession of different administrative systems, more or less provisional. As

722-545: The Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa and Carrara in the Lunigiana , the northernmost tip of modern-day Tuscany , Italy. More marble has been extracted from the over 650 quarry sites near Carrara than from any other place. The pure white statuario grade

760-631: The Venetian market, were able to create a dense commercial network, exporting the marble even to distant locations. Just to cite an example, starting from 1474, first the Maffioli, then the Buffa, supplied the marble for the facade of the Certosa di Pavia , also taking care of the transport of the material which, by ship, after having circumnavigated Italy, reached the construction site of the monastery after having sailed up

798-418: The city of Modena sphere of influence. Under the domination of the Este, the Duchy of Massa Carrara rose to occupy a strategic position, in that it provided a sea outlet to the hinterland domains and promised an easier trade route. Already under Maria Teresa road links between the Duchy of Modena and Reggio to Massa & Carrara were significantly improved. These road reform attempts include the construction of

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836-416: The construction of infrastructure to increase the volume of trade, but the lack of money often proves an insurmountable obstacle. A second attempt to build the port of Carrara was entrusted by Duke Francis IV to the engineer Aschenden in 1830, but the project was never made for lack of funds. A dock loader, which came to be the first authentic port core of Carrara was built successfully only in 1851, thanks to

874-659: The exiled Polish president Ignacy Mościcki (1867–1946), and the former Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980). The museum was founded in 1954. It is the main art museum in Craiova and is a significant tourist attraction for the city. A major attraction of the museum is the gallery dedicated to Constantin Brâncuși , exhibiting six of his early sculptures (including variants of his best-known works): Vitellius (1898), Miss Pogany (1902), The Vainglory (1905), Boy's Head (1906), The Kiss (1907), and Woman Torso (1909). It also has

912-505: The extinction of the Cybo-Malaspina family, the state was ruled by the House of Austria-Este and management of the mines rested with them. Massa Cathedral is built entirely of Carrara marble and the old Ducal Palace of Massa was used to showcase the stone. By the end of the 19th century, Carrara had become a cradle of anarchism in Italy, in particular among the quarry workers. According to

950-552: The fiefdom experienced a very favorable period of development, thanks also to the advantageous economic situation in the marble market, which was in great demand by the Renaissance courts of the time. Alberico I, aware that his statelet was surrounded by more powerful and influential neighbors, continued his mother's policy of alignment with the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V of Habsburg, who officially confirmed his investiture of

988-478: The fiefdom in 1554. Thanks to its cultural and economic successes, the city of Carrara obtained the rank of marquisate in 1558 . In 1568 Massa was elevated to principality by the Emperor Maximilian II . In 1664, during the rule of Alberico II, Leopold I of Habsburg raised the Principality of Massa to the rank of duchy and the Marquisate of Carrara to a principality. In 1741 Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina ,

1026-630: The heritage of the stone carvers. Many violent revolutionists who had been expelled from Belgium and Switzerland went to Carrara in 1885 and founded the first anarchist group in Italy. In Carrara, the anarchist Galileo Palla remarked, "even the stones are anarchists." The quarry workers were the main actors of the Lunigiana revolt in January 1894. The Apuan Alps above Carrara show evidence of at least 650 quarry sites, with about half of them currently abandoned or worked out. The Carrara quarries have produced more marble than any other place on earth. Working

1064-488: The last scion of the family, married Ercole III d'Este , the only male heir of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio . Their only surviving child, Maria Beatrice d'Este , was thus the last descendant of both families, but, as a woman, she was not entitled to succeed under Salic law and was only permitted to take over the Duchy of Massa and Carrara thanks to the exemption wrested almost three centuries earlier by her indomitable and often reviled ancestor, Ricciarda Malaspina. In 1796

1102-633: The marble mining industry. The city of Massa, in particular, saw much of its plan redesigned (new roads, plazas, intersections, pavings) in order to make it worthy of an Italian country's capital. The War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714) was the beginning of the period of deep economic crisis for the duchy. The Empire punished with heavy fines the Cybo-Malspina, who had given hospitality to French troops on its territory. Already Alberich III, but especially Alderamo, found themselves forced to sell many city goods. Alderamo arrived to force people to buy food at

1140-516: The most common types with more expensive exotic variations such as Calacatta Gold, Calacatta Borghini, Calacatta Macchia Vecchia, Arabescato Cervaiole and Arabescato Vagli quarried throughout the Carrara area. Bardiglio has more black, and has been used since Roman times for architectural facings and floors. The marble from Carrara was used for some of the most remarkable buildings in Ancient Rome : It

1178-525: The previous year, of Francis V , the Duchy of Modena and Reggio (also including the territories of Massa and Carrara) was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia , of which it constituted the Province of Massa-Carrara . The merge of the Malaspina family with the Cybo family brought the territory to a rather lavish court life. In the conduct of foreign policy the Cybo-Malaspina maintained a role as an intermediary between

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1216-553: The purchase of the Carrara territory onwards, the seat of Jacopo Malaspina, one of the sons of Antonio Alberico I Malaspina, member of the branch of the family located in Fosdinovo , was located in the city of Carrara, but due to the frequent clashes with the French invaders who occurred often, he and his successors moved to Massa. Within two generations the Malaspina family died out in male descent and Ricciarda , Iacopo's eldest surviving granddaughter, married in 1520 with Lorenzo Cybo ,

1254-491: The quarries is and has always been dangerous. In September 1911, a collapsing cliff face at the Bettogli Quarry crushed 10 workers who were on lunch break under a precipice. A 2014 video made at a Carrara quarry shows workers with missing fingers, and workers performing hazardous, painfully noisy work who are not wearing protective gear of any kind. The prize yield from Carrara quarries through millennia has been statuario ,

1292-667: The time of Ancient Rome , when it was called marmor lunense , or "Luni marble". In the Middle Ages, most of the quarries were owned by the Marquis Malaspina who in turn rented them to families of Carrara masters who managed both the extraction and transport of the precious material. Some of them, such as the Maffioli, who rented some quarries north of Carrara, in the Torano area, or, around 1490, Giovanni Pietro Buffa, who bought marble on credit from local quarrymen and then resold it on

1330-511: Was also used in many sculptures of the Renaissance including Michelangelo 's David (1501–1504) whilst the statue to Robert Burns , which commands a central position in Dumfries , was carved in Carrara by Italian craftsmen working to Amelia Robertson Hill 's model. It was unveiled by future UK Prime Minister Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery on 6 April 1882. Other notable occurrences include: Carrara marble has been designated by

1368-502: Was forced to take refuge in Vienna with the family of her husband, Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este , uncle of Emperor Francis II , and pretender to the ducal throne of Modena and Reggio. With the fall of the Napoleonic regime, the Congress of Vienna again assigned to Maria Beatrice the ancestral duchy of which she had been dispossessed. The imperial fiefs in Lunigiana (starting with

1406-526: Was rather stormy: the two spouses disputed for a long time the governance of the marquisate and in 1529 Ricciarda managed to obtain from emperor Charles V the investiture of the marquisate, in derogation of the Salic law , for herself, for her male descendants in order of primogeniture or, in their absence, also for females. The son of Ricciarda and Lorenzo, Alberico I Cybo-Malaspina succeeded his mother as Marquis of Massa and Carrara in 1553. Under his 70-year rule

1444-411: Was used for monumental sculpture , as "it has a high tensile strength, can take a high gloss polish and holds very fine detail". By the late 20th century Carrara's highest-grade marble had run out; the considerable ongoing production is of stone with a greyish tint, or streaks of black or grey on white. This is still attractive as an architectural facing, or for tiles. Carrara marble has been used since

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