Pietra Alberese: from Traditional Building Material of the Tuscan Countryside to the Present Use (Tuscany, Italy)

In Tuscany, the vernacular architecture of the countryside between Siena and Florence (Chianti territory), and the monumental architecture of towns such as Prato and Pistoia together with the surrounding villages, extensively used a local limestone, the Pietra Alberese. It is a grey marly limestone,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGeoheritage Vol. 14; no. 2
Main Authors Fratini, Fabio, Rescic, Silvia, Arrighetti, Andrea, Cantisani, Emma, Pecchioni, Elena
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.06.2022
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Biogeosciences
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Fruits
Global Heritage Stone Resource: The sustainable way forward
Historical Geology
Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning
Limestone
Mineralogy
Original Article
Paleontology
Physical Geography
Pietra Alberese
Vernacular architecture
Marly limestone
Contemporaneous architecture
Tuscany
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Summary:In Tuscany, the vernacular architecture of the countryside between Siena and Florence (Chianti territory), and the monumental architecture of towns such as Prato and Pistoia together with the surrounding villages, extensively used a local limestone, the Pietra Alberese. It is a grey marly limestone, very resistant to decay, which takes on a whitish colour upon exposure to atmospheric agents. In addition, the Pietra Alberese was used to produce lime, being the only limestone cropping out in this territory. In this work, the Pietra Alberese is characterized, from a geological, mineralogical and petrographic point of view, highlighting its problems of conservation. Furthermore, the use in the historical architecture (both vernacular and monumental) and in the twentieth century architecture is illustrated.
ISSN:1867-2477
1867-2485
DOI:10.1007/s12371-022-00681-0