A pleasantly different route for those wishing to round off a walk through nature.
GREEN MARBLE QUARRY
CESANA’S GREEN MARBLE
An incomparable view of the valleys
An incomparable view of the valleys
There is a dark green rock in the area of Mont Crouzeau, Bousson, Roche Noire and Punta Rascià with a dense network of white veins, serpentinite, and an appearance very similar to marble.
In the past, the rock was intensively quarried in the Bousson and Cesana area. Mining took place from 1924-25 to the early 1970s.
Now above Bousson there remain a number of cavities supported by pillars and numerous tools and machinery abandoned when the activity was closed.
In the Modern Age, “Cesana Green”, improperly called ‘marble’, was a great resource for the Upper Valley: it is an ophiolite, i.e. a metamorphic stone in which the intense green component (or the even more precious ‘red’ in the case of a strong presence of hematite) alternates with whitish calcareous veins. The beauty and easy workability of this stone made it a building material of decorative value that was widespread throughout the Susa valley as far as Turin.
