The Candoglia Marble and the “Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano”: A Renowned Georesource to Be Potentially Designed as Global Heritage Stone

Abstract

Marbles from Alpine area have been widely employed to build and decorate masterpieces and buildings which often represent the cultural heritage of an area (statuary, historic buildings and sculptures). Candoglia marble, object of the present research, is one of the most famous and appreciated marbles from Alpine area; it has been quarried since Roman times in the Verbano-Cusio-Ossola (VCO; Piemonte – NW Italy) extractive area. Candoglia Marble outcrops are present as lenses within the high-grade paragneisses of the Ivrea Zone, a visible section of deep continental crust characterised by amphibolite- to granulite-facies metamorphism (Palaeozoic period). Candoglia calcitic marble (80–85% CaCO3 and the 15–20% other minerals) shows a characteristic pink to gray colour and a coarse-grained texture (>3 mm): frequent centimetre-thick dark-greenish silicate layers (mainly represented by diopside and tremolite) characterize the texture of the marble. It has been largely used in local rural constructions and historical buildings, but its most famous application has been (and still is) for the “Duomo di Milano” construction (fourteenth century). The Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano carried out the anthropogenic activities dealing with the Candoglia marble exploitation; it has to be highlighted that the company have managed the Marble exploitation during the last seven centuries and that the quarry itself is a tangible sign of the development of extraction and heritage in the VCO area. Candoglia marble can be recognized as a significant example of a “Global Heritage Stone Resource”: its exploitation from quarry to building (the Duomo di Milano) well represents the close correlation between stone and cultural heritage, between georesources and humankind development

Pietra Alberese: Building Material and Stone for Lime in the Florentine Territory (Tuscany, Italy)

“…The presence of the clay minerals is also the great problem which affects the durability of the Pietra Serena, as discussed in Fratini et al [44]. Therefore, it is necessary to underline how the petro-physical study of the building stone materials can help to improve the state of the art about the problems of conservation and to establish the more suitable restoration interventions [42][43][44][45][46][47].…”

Calcitic-based stones protection by a low-fluorine modified methacrylic coating

“…All the reagents and solvents (by Sigma-Aldrich) were of reagent-grade purity and used without purification. The adopted lithotype is Candoglia calcitic marble (80–85% CaCO 3 and the 15–20% other minerals including epidote, quartz, barite, and Ba-feldspar (Dino et al 2019 )) that has a characteristic pinkish to grayish color and a coarse-grained texture (> 3 mm). Moreover, some centimeter-thick dark-greenish silicate layers (mainly represented by diopside and tremolite) characterize the texture of the marble.…”

“…Specifically, once water and harsh agents enter the stone, several physicochemical processes, e.g., carbonate dissolution (Piacenti 1994;Minto et al 2018), freezing/thawing cycles (Ruedrich et al 2011;Iñigo et al 2013;Török and Szemerey-Kiss 2019), and/or crystallization/precipitation (Fernandes 2006) can occur, dramatically affecting the quality and properties of such building materials. For instance, the Milan Cathedral, one of the most famous monuments worldwide, is mainly composed by calcitic marble (80-85% CaCO 3 and the 15-20% other minerals (Dino et al 2019)). This important monument preservation against physicochemical deterioration induced by atmospheric pollution has to be guaranteed (Manoudis et al 2009a;Goffredo 2013;Jroundi et al 2017;Ruffolo and La Russa 2019).…”

Integrating Cultural Sites into the Sesia Val Grande UNESCO Global Geopark (North-West Italy): Methodologies for Monitoring and Enhancing Cultural Heritage

“…Within the SVUGGp, several sites of international historical-cultural interest or archaeological importance are also located, even though they are not inserted in the WHL, and at the moment, they are not promoted in the context of the geopark [48][49][50][51]. By consciously merging all the territory's strengths in commerce, community, culture, environment, and politics, the SVUGGp serves as a management tool for sustainable regional development [5,52].…”