Latin for “My force is in the wheel” – the quote of Carrara, a town most famous for its legendary marble quarries used to build the Pantheon and Trajan’s Column in Rome, and a place with over 2,000 years of history.
Carrara is a city and comune in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some 100 kilometres (62 mi) west-northwest of Florence. Its motto is Fortitudo mea in rota (Latin: “My strength is in the wheel”). Marble from this area can be spotted in the mountainous landscape that frame every picturesque scene here.
HIGLIGHTS
Carrara, located in the Apuan Riviera in Northern Tuscany, has always been known as the marble city. The city merges into the Alps in a succession of diverse and fascinating landscapes, dominated by white mountain tips and marble extracted from quarries, which has been at the foundations of the town’s history and fortune.
This historic town’s identity has always been linked to the exploitation of the clear stone from its quarries since the Roman Empier. Ever since, Carrara’s name instantly brings to mind quarries and marble – the white gold so famous it recalls artists of all ages and places.
Even the town’s coat of arms and name have always been linked to marble: the first represents the wheel, as does the toponym, which some believe comes from Cararia, the place of wagons. These wagons were used to transport the marble blocks, whilst the wheel on the coat of arms is always associated with the motto fortitudo mea in rota.
Main sights
- Cathedral (Duomo, 12th century).
- Ducal Palace (also Palazzo Cybo Malaspina, 16th century), now the seat of the Fine Arts Academy. Built over pre-existing Lombard fortification, it dates to the reign of Guglielmo Malaspina, becoming in 1448 the permanent seat of the dynasty. It includes two distinct edifices: the Castello Malaspiniano, dating to the 13th century, and the Renaissance palace, begun by Alberico I in the late 16th century. Under the medieval loggia are exposed several ancient Roman findings.
- Baroque church and convent of San Francesco, built in 1623–64 by order of Carlo I Cybo-Malaspina.
- Church of the Suffragio, begun in 1686 under design of Innocenzo Bergamini, and refurbished in the 19th century. The façade has a large marble portal in Baroque style, sculpted by Carlo Finelli and surmounted by a bas-relief with the “Madonna and the Souls of the Purgatory”.
- Palazzo Cybo-Malaspina
- Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie alla Lugnola, consecrated in 1676 and designed by Alessandro Bergamini.
- Church of Santa Maria Assunta, at Torano. It has a 16th-century façade with a portal from 1554. The interior is on a nave and two aisles.
A Carrara marble quarry.Façade of the Cathedral.Palazzo Cybo Malaspina.Carrara marble exploitation.
What to see in Carrara
The oldest core of the city is the Collegiate Church of Sant’Andrea, which later became the splendid Cathedral, famous for its grandiose façade decorated with slabs of white Luna marble alternating with black Colonnata marble. This majestic monument is located in Piazza Duomo, the beating heart of the city.
Start your time in Carrara with a visit to Malaspina Castle, the fortress that represented the regaining of autonomy from the Luni bishops. In fact, in the 13th century, the secular forces promoted the village’s military organization by reinforcing the fortress itself. Over the centuries, the monument’s defensive purpose has been transformed into a wonderful noble residence, and since 1805 has been home to the Academy of Fine Arts.
We recommend visiting Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie in the historic centre, built between 1620 and 1660 in a Baroque-Rococo style. Also take a visit to the Carmine Church, whose façade features a sculpture of the Blessed Virgin of the Rose by the Spaniard Bartolomeo Ordonez.
To learn more about the city’s history and vocation, have a look around the Civic Marble Museum. Opened in 1982, its exhibition space is divided into six internal sections and an external area that offer visitors a complex and fascinating insight into the local heritage, including Roman archaeology and the area’s history, in order to illustrate the most innovative techniques of modern sculpture in marble and other materials.
For contemporary art enthusiasts, a visit to the Centre of Plastic Arts in Carrara, housed inside the former convent of San Francesco, is a must. The museum is made up of works acquired by the municipality of Carrara over the course of the different editions of the International Sculpture Biennial since 1957 to today, from those received from private donations and from the works left in the cloister and made for the event “Designing the Marble”. Don’t miss CARMI – the Carrara and Michelangelo Museum, housed in Villa Fabbricotti, a nineteenth century building located inside Padula Park.
Economy and culture
Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome. The Pantheon and Trajan’s Column in Rome are constructed of it, and many sculptures of the Renaissance were carved from it.
In addition to the marble quarries, the city has academies of sculpture and fine arts and a museum of statuary and antiquities, and a yearly marble technology fair. The local marble is exported around the world, and marble from elsewhere is also fashioned and sculpted commercially here.
