Carrara is a city and comune in the
province of Massa-Carrara
(Tuscany, Italy
), famous for
the white or blue-gray marble quarried
there. It is on the Carrione
river, some 100 km west-northwest of Florence
.
Its motto is
Fortitudo mea in rota (Latin for "My force is
in the wheel").
History
Settlements in the area are known since the
9th century BC, when here the
Apuan Ligures lived here. The current town
originated from the borough built to house workers in the marble
quarries created by the
Romans after
their conquest of Liguria in the early 2nd century BC. In the
Middle Ages it was a Byzantine and Lombard possession, and then
belonged to the
bishops of
Luni and the
Malaspina family,
turning itself into an autonomous commune in the early
13th century; during the struggle between
Guelphs and Ghibellines,
Carrara usually belonged to the latter party.
The Bishops acquired
it again in 1230, their rule ending in 1313, when the city was
given in succession to the Republics of
Pisa, Lucca
and Florence. Later it was acquired
by
Gian Galeazzo Visconti of
Milan.
After the
death of Filippo Maria
Visconti of Milan in 1477,
Carrara was fought over by Tommaso
Campofregoso, lord of Sarzana
, and again
the Malaspina family, who moved here the seat of their signoria in the second half of the 16th
century. Carrara and Massa formed the Duchy of Massa
and Carrara
from the 15th to the 19th century. Under the
last Malaspina,
Maria
Teresa, who had married
Ercole III d'Este, it
became part of the
Duchy of
Modena.
After the short Napoleonic rule of
Elisa
Bonaparte, it was given back to Modena. During the
unification of Italy age, Carrara was
the seat of a popular revolt led by
Domenico Cucchiari, and was a center of
Giuseppe Mazzini's revolutionary
activity.
In 1929,
the municipalities of Carrara, Massa and Montignoso
were merged in a single municipality, called
Apuania. In 1945 the previous situation was
restored.
Carrara is the birthplace of the
International Federation
of Anarchists (IFA), formed in 1968.
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
1623-1664 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.
Economy and culture
A Carraran marble quarry.
Carrara marble exploitation
Carrara marble has been used
since the time of Ancient Rome; the
Pantheon
and Trajan's Column
in Rome
are
constructed of it. Many sculptures of
the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo's David
, were carved from Carrara marble.
For
Michelangelo at least, Carrara marble was valued above all other
stone, except perhaps that of his own quarry in Pietrasanta
. The Marble Arch
in London
and the
Duomo di
Siena
are also made from this stone.
The
statue to Robert Burns which commands a
central position in Dumfries
was carved in Carrara by Italian craftsmen working
to Amelia Paton Hill's
model. It was unveiled by future UK
Prime Minister,
Archibald Primrose, 5th
Earl of Rosebery on 6 April 1882.
In addition to the
marble quarries, the
city has academies of sculpture and fine arts and a
museum of statuaries and antiquities. The local
marble is exported around the world, and marble from elsewhere is
also fashioned and sculpted commercially here.
An international stone and machinery exhibition,
CarraraMarmotec, takes place in Carrara.
Derivation of name
The word "Carrara" likely comes from the ancient term "Kar"
(stone).
Ancient Romans quarried the marble, loaded
it onto ships at the port of Luni
and took it
to Rome. According to Saint Girolamo, the name Carrara
derives from “car” which means "wagons" and from “iara” that means
"Moon", so is the “City of the Moon on the Wagons”.
Monte Sagro and nearby quarries.
Another hypothesis (Repetti) is that the term is derived from the
French “careers”, which in turn is borrowed from “carrariae”, a
Latin term meaning quarry. Carrara may derive from a preRoman term
: “kair” (Celtic) or to one from Liguria: “kar”, that means "stone"
and therefore: “car+aria” meaning “place of stones”.
Twin towns - Sister cities
Carrara is
twinned with:
Famous Carraresi
References
External links
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