Walking in the Streets of Pisa to Discover the Stones Used in the Middle Ages

Lezzerini, Marco; Pagnotta, Stefano; Legnaioli, Stefano; Palleschi, Vincenzo

doi:10.1007/s12371-019-00372-3

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The workshop is accompanied by a walk through Piazza dei Miracoli (where the famous Leaning Tower is located) and the walkway on the ancient City Walls of Pisa, which has recently opened to the public, to discover their "stones" that tell of journeys, imports, plunders and local quarrying activities ( Figure 9). In literature, there are several papers describing in detail the main stones used in Pisa [21][22][23][24] and on the medieval stones of the western Tuscany [25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

Section: "Ludoteca Scientifica" Workhopsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the framework of "Settimana del Pianeta Terra", a national program for the diffusion and dissemination of the Earth Sciences, we organized some activities such as: a) walking in Pisa and Lucca to recognize the stones used as building materials in the center of Pisa during the Middle Age (DST-UniPi) [31]; b) temporary exhibition of ornamental stones at the research area of Pisa (IGG-CNR); c) thematic conference and city walk titled: Territory, Geo-Resources and Cultural Heritage: Examples of "Urban Petrography" in Sicily and Tuscany, IGG-CNR in collaboration with the Museum of Mineralogy (DiSTeM, UniPa) ( Figure 10). In literature, there are several papers describing in detail the main stones used in Pisa [21][22][23][24] and on the medieval stones of the western Tuscany [25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

Section: "Earth Planet Week" National Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some activities of "Urban Petrography" in the framework of "Settimana del Pianeta Terra": 1) a walk in the center of Pisa was organized to recognize the stones used as building materials; (A) St. Nicholas church façade shows a patchwork of Monte Pisano marble, quartzite and black limestone[31]. A marble intarsia on the façade illustrates a Fibonacci abacus[32]; (B) the Monte Pisano marbles used for building the Monumental Cemetery; 2) activities in collaboration with University of Palermo, Sicily: (C) donation of a collection of about 200 samples of ornamental stones and temporary exhibition at Museum of Mineralogy (DiSTeM, UniPa); (D) a guided tour of a baroque church (Chiesa dell'Immacolata Concezione) in Palermo to recognize the ornamental stones presented during the thematic conferences (E).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Geological and Cultural Heritage: Dissemination Experiences in Tuscany

Felice

Abebe²,

Aquino

et al. 2019

Heritage

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We report on some recent experiences of scientific dissemination activities on geomaterials carried out by a network of scientific organizations in Tuscany (Italy). The primary message we want to disseminate is that even the most “insignificant” rock (e.g., those constituting the bar or kitchen counter-tops) stores in their interior very useful information beyond the beautiful colors and their aesthetic appearance. These rocks can tell stories of very old geological periods on how they were formed. Their structures, texture and shape, as well as their chemistry and mineralogy provide clues to the reconstruction of geological events. Moreover, the rocks used in urban architecture and monuments are an inexhaustible archive containing a lot of historical and economic information on the development of a city and its surrounding area. The role of geologists, in this context, is to provide to the public, in clear and engaging language, the tools necessary to solve the puzzle (i.e., identify the most important types of rocks and rock-forming minerals, know their physico-chemical properties, their textures and structures and discover the environments in which they formed). A specific objective of this work is to stimulate an exchange between various research organizations (universities, public research institutions, museums, associations, etc.) and the civil society.

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Section: "Ludoteca Scientifica" Workhopsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: "Earth Planet Week" National Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geological and Cultural Heritage: Dissemination Experiences in Tuscany

Felice

Abebe²,

Aquino

et al. 2019

Heritage

Self Cite

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“…Careddu et al [12] and Lezzerini et al [13] made significant strides in understanding the historical geoheritage value of building stones. Careddu et al [12] looked at how Sardinian granite rock was used by the Romans during the Middle Ages and today, while Lezzerini et al [13] studied the historic use of building stones in the construction of medieval buildings in Pisa, Italy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collecting Rocks on the Frontier: Investigating the Geodiversity Significance of Historical Building Stones and Rock Collecting at the Maxey Homestead, Northwest Texas, USA

2023

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The geoheritage importance of the stones used in the construction of buildings in urban landscapes has been documented by several scholars around the world. Building stones can provide an ex situ cross-section of a region’s geodiversity and illuminate its cultural significance. Research at the historic Maxey Homestead (1902–1907), located along the eastern escarpment of the Southern High Plains near Post, Texas, has uncovered a rock collection gathered from local sources. In addition, rocks from the eastern escarpment were used to construct and decorate a house in 1938 (~9 km to the north) after the Maxeys moved from their original homestead. A combination of GIS and 3D mapping using an unmanned aerial vehicle were used to assess and analyze the geodiversity significance of the rock collection and rock-decorated house. Rock collecting and the use of local stones in building construction provide insights into the geodiversity of the Southern High Plains’ eastern escarpment and the historical geoheritage of northwest Texas in the early 20th century. The results of this study also demonstrate the importance of examining non-urban and historical landscapes for elucidating the significance of geodiversity to past peoples.

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“…For a better fruition of the geological and cultural heritage, stone itineraries across the urban centres of some Italian cities, such as Bologna (Del Monte 2005), Catania (Punturo et al 2006), Roma (Giampaolo et al 2008), Firenze (Pecchioni et al 2012), Reggio Emilia (Vernia 2014), Torino (Borghi et al 2014;Gambino et al 2019), Pisa (Lezzerini et al 2019) and Petralia Sottana-Palermo (Torre et al 2020), have been proposed in the last two decades, aimed at developing geotourism. Some "geological walks", promoted by the Societé Geologique de France and the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle over historical and modern cities of France (De Wever et al 2017), and other important recent case studies of geotourism reported by Brocx and Semeniuk (2019) and Fio Firi and Maričić (2020) are among the best examples in the world.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Historic Centre of Urbino, UNESCO World Heritage (Marche Region, Italy): an Urban-Geological Itinerary Across the Building and Ornamental Stones

et al. 2021

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The local and extra-regional (national and transnational) stones mainly used as building and ornamental materials in the historic centre of Urbino (UNESCO World Heritage List) were unravelled through a detailed geological and petrographic study. The types of building stones used in the past for the development of an urban centre were mostly affected by the availability of suitable geomaterials in the surrounding areas. For this reason, the stones found in the historical buildings of Urbino generally come from the local sedimentary formations (mostly limestones) belonging to the Umbria–Marche–Romagna Succession Auct., which crops out in the Northern Marche Apennines. Only some ornamental highly prized stones used for monuments and decorations come from both extra-regional Italian areas (Alps, other sectors of the Northern Apennines) and foreign countries (France, Egypt). A brief description of the Northern Marche geology was also reported to exactly match the local provenance of the stones, so highlighting the relationship between the territory and the architecture of Urbino. Because of obvious conservation reasons, no samples were collected from buildings or monuments and only autoptic observations, together with a detailed historical and bibliographic research, were carried out to identify the different materials and the provenance areas. Besides the availability of the local sedimentary rocks, we emphasised how the choice of the building and ornamental stones could have been also influenced by the historic period and artistic style, aesthetic features, economic and social importance of the building and/or monument and the relationship to some distinguished personality (e.g., Pope Clemente XI). An open-air stone itinerary across significant places (10 stops and additional sites and monuments in the urban area) is finally proposed for the best fruition of the geological and cultural heritage of Urbino, also aimed at geotourism development.

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Walking in the Streets of Pisa to Discover the Stones Used in the Middle Ages

Cited by 13 publications

References 40 publications

Geological and Cultural Heritage: Dissemination Experiences in Tuscany

Geological and Cultural Heritage: Dissemination Experiences in Tuscany

Collecting Rocks on the Frontier: Investigating the Geodiversity Significance of Historical Building Stones and Rock Collecting at the Maxey Homestead, Northwest Texas, USA

The Historic Centre of Urbino, UNESCO World Heritage (Marche Region, Italy): an Urban-Geological Itinerary Across the Building and Ornamental Stones

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