Abandoned Henraux Quarry

The Henraux marble mining company was founded in 1821 and still wields huge influence today. According to their website, Michelangelo explored around here in ~1518 and Cosimo I de’Medici started the excavation of marble here for statues in 1568. In the 1700s, marble quarrying declined, but then Henraux, who was the French superintendent of marbles for French monuments, built up a company to quarry and deliver marble for public statues.

The company chose the best quarry sites, but over time they have allowed a few to be abandoned. One such is on the road to Castelnuovo di Garfagnana that I rode the other day. I’ve ridden past a few times but haven’t ever stopped. I don’t know why.

This time I stopped. It was very special. I’ll go back when I have more daylight. It felt like a stage setting. Quite wonderful. And I was completely alone in the fading evening light. Sigh…

The road shoulder widens into a stony wasteland dotted with scruffy scraggly trees. You could park here, but it’s littered with massive marble boulders. High above there’s an old Henraux sign that’s missing a letter or two. Below there’s a narrow slot corridor beckoning.

How can I resist? I lean my bike up against a big piece of blackened old marble and go in. It’s like going into a tunnel at Petra, high arched and mysterious.

As I walk the last feet, I’m shocked. In awe. I’m in a marble theatre, tall walls curve away to the left, blackened by decades of water pouring across them.

I stand in wonder. The stones are scattered as if for a monumental production of Aida or Julius Caesar.

I’m not the first to slip into this remote marble gallery. You can see that others have left their mark.

On this facade, you can see the circular saw marks.

I notice the light is disintegrating. I’d better get going. I turn and make my way out.

What an incredible place. I’ll come back when I have more daylight.

To finish, another couple shots of the sliced marble walls.

Here the stone looks like it’s weeping…