The same travertine quarries near Rome that built the Colosseum 2,000 years ago and St. Peter’s Basilica centuries later continue to operate today, supplying distinctive pock-marked stone to churches, temples and mosques around the world. Workers at quarries near Tivoli, Italy—35 kilometers east of Rome—extract travertine from underground sulfur springs, fulfilling commissions from institutions ranging from the Getty Center in Los Angeles to the Bank of China in Beijing to a renovated Latter-day Saint temple in Manhattan.
Travertine’s appeal lies both in its durability—stone from buildings 2,000 years old still stands intact—and in its cultural resonance with ancient Rome. The stone’s distinctive appearance and proven longevity have made it sought after by architects worldwide as a link to classical architectural heritage.
Long ago, when Romans wanted to build a new temple, they would head to quarries near Tivoli, chisel out blocks of porous rock called travertine, and float the cargo downstream on rafts to craftsmen in Rome. That is how they built the Colosseum 2,000 years ago. That is how they built St. Peter’s Basilica and Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s great colonnade centuries later.
Today, the same quarries that built Rome continue supplying distinctive pock-marked stone to churches, temples and mosques around the world, as well as banks, museums, government buildings and private homes.
Travertine is unique because it is quarried underground in sulfur springs and basins around Tivoli. Made up mostly of calcium carbonate minerals, Roman travertine was formed hundreds of thousands of years ago by deposits of calcium, sulfur and other minerals. It is prized by architects for a number of reasons: it is strong, plentiful and can withstand climactic and environmental assaults. Depending on how and where it is cut, it has a variety of looks—from warm white with irregular black holes to sandy beige with gray, brown or greenish veins.
Four Generations of Stone
For four generations, the Mariotti Carlo SpA stonecutting firm has been carving travertine to order, fulfilling some of the world’s most distinctive architectural commissions. The firm provided stone for the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Bank of China headquarters in Beijing, and the Great Mosque in Algiers.
On a recent workday, pieces of a temple being restored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were lying neatly on the floor of Mariotti’s Tivoli warehouse—hunks of travertine carved from the nearby quarries and cut into made-to-measure puzzle pieces that will be assembled on-site in New York City.
After providing the travertine for the Latter-day Saint temple in Rome, Mariotti was chosen by the church’s architects to restore the temple on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The temple sits across Broadway from Lincoln Center and the Juilliard School, both built with Mariotti-cut travertine decades ago.
“Travertine is a classic stone known all over the world,” said Fabrizio Mariotti, head of the family business. “It’s a bit like carrying the light of Rome everywhere, because the way travertine reflects light is very special.”
Where Bernini Worked
All around the Tivoli quarries, the air is heavy with the stench of sulfur and the constant pounding, clinking and cracking of giant jackhammers blasting ancient rock into pieces.
At the Degemar quarries, drilled down to 30 meters below sea level, bright blue ponds of sulfur springs pool the travertine residue as flat-bed trucks haul stone slabs weighing 33 tons up to street level. It was here that Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the great Baroque sculptor and architect, sourced the brilliant white travertine for the 284 columns and 88 pillars of the colonnade embracing St. Peter’s Square.
Bernini spent so much time at Degemar selecting his rock that he had a home overlooking the quarry. That house still stands today, and the quarry’s current head, Vincenzo De Gennaro, reminds visitors that a pigeon coop visible on Bernini’s tower once housed homing pigeons that would transport orders to the quarry from Rome with measurements of the rocks needed.
Nowadays, the quarry is filling orders much farther afield: new airports in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and new government headquarters in Shenzhen, China, among other projects worldwide.
“It is special, a special stone because it is a living stone, a stone that is born in a cocktail of mineral waters,” De Gennaro said. “There is the concrete experience of a civilization dating back thousands of years that stands in the light of day and has been shining undisturbed for 2,000 years. That is the guarantee.”
The Stone of Rome
Marco Ferrero, professor of civil engineering at Rome’s La Sapienza University, said part of travertine’s appeal lies in its connection to ancient Rome and thus to the magic of the classical world. Travertine embodies Rome’s spirit: it is solid, resistant and noble but not as ostentatious as its cousin, marble, which does not fare as well over time when exposed to the elements.
“We can make this comparison: Marble speaks to us in beautiful Italian, in literary Italian, while travertine speaks to us in Roman dialect,” Ferrero said. “It is truly the stone of the Romans. And like Roman cuisine, which is made up of simple dishes, often using discarded ingredients, travertine is a genuine and traditional stone.”
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