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Cembra’s Red Gold
hat the Melinda Apple was to the Val di Non, porphyry became to the Val di Cembra…its “red gold”. Both turned around the fortunes of their respective valleys in dramatic ways. It was thanks to its extraction and the related industries in the last century, the valley has developed and unprecedented prosperity.
as well as Italy, one finds the bolognini, paving stones that embellish and enhance of cities and historic villages. One such villages is my father’s village of Rango in the Val delle Giudicarie declared Uno dei Bei Borghi D`Italia, one of the most beautiful hamlets of Italy.
What is porfido…porhy. Porphyry is a textural term for an igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals. The term "porphyry" is from Greek and means "purple." Purple was the color of royalty, and the "Imperial Porphyry" was a deep purple igneous .The rock was the hardest known in antiquity and was prized for monuments and building projects in Imperial Rome and later. Its use continued through the Byzantine empire and the Middle Ages.
Porphyry is currently the most important industry of the Cembra Valley. . The first porphyry quarries of TrentinoAlto Adige were opened in the Alto Adige in 1880. In the Cembra Valley activities began in the early years of the twentieth century but the cultivation of porphyry Cembrano has experienced its greatest growth especially after World War II: this reddish stone, used in construction, is extracted in the form of large slabs, particularly suitable for processing into cubes for paving or large stones flat; much of the stone extracted is exported. In the municipalities of the so-called district of porphyry such as Albiano, Fornace, Baselga and Lona-Lases, all on the left bank of the valley), the majority of non-agricultural workers is now engaged in activities related to this industry. The need to transport this mineral, raw or semifinished, has also provided the impetus for the construction of new roads, helping to break the age-old isolation of the valley. Throughout the Trentino-Alto Adige
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Porphyry Quarries