The Carrara marble is a type of marble extracted from quarries in the Apuan Alps in the Carrara region, universally renowned as one of the most prized marbles. Some of the world’s most important architectural and sculptural works have been created with this marble.

It is a carbonate rock, predominantly composed of calcium carbonate (it must contain at least 50% carbonates): Carrara marble contains, on average, about 98% calcium carbonate, giving it a dazzling white color.

Its formation dates back to 190 million years ago when much of the regions now corresponding to northern Tuscany were covered by a vast sea. At the bottom of this sea, a limestone sediment was deposited, originating a carbonate platform. This platform was initially composed of organogenic limestone, derived from the accumulation of shells and skeletal remains of tiny organisms, fused together by a limestone sand and tiny fragments of the shells themselves.

Later, the rock underwent metamorphism due to a series of chemical and physical transformations that occurred underground at high pressures and temperatures. Under these conditions, quartz crystals formed in veins and cavities through the recrystallization of pre-existing minerals or the deposition of dissolved silica in supersaturated fluids.

The quarrying area of Fossa degli Angeli-La Facciata is famous worldwide for its fine specimens of quartz, sulphur, fluorite, gypsum and several sulphides and sulphosalts.