In the V and IV century BC the Etruscans who lived in Velathri (current Volterra), knew and appreciated the stone of which its ground was rich: alabaster. And already at that time they had discovered the secrets of that stone and its working: they built sarcophaguses and cinerary urns to accompany their dear ones in their journeys to the underworld. Findings collected in the excavations of Etruscan graves are kept at Volterra’s Guarnacci Museum and the Archaeological Museum in Florence.

And in Volterra, a symbol city in Tuscany for the extraction and working of alabaster, today as much as 2500 years ago, the ancient tradition of the working of this stone is handed down. The Volterra area, in the province of Pisa, is rich in alabaster quarries of a quality considered one of the most precious in Europe, many of them abandoned because of the market’s scarce demand.

Alabaster is a sedimentary rock found in two varieties: one called eastern alabaster or alabastrite and the other chalky alabaster, much softer and generally white, apparently very similar to marble. And this second variety is the one that is extracted in Volterra in the Castellina Marittima area.

Used for decorations and furnishings in all its historical ages, even if at alternate stages, alabaster saw its moment of maximum “splendour” owing to a noble and able Volterranean, Marcello Inghirami, whom at the beginning of the 19th century opened the first industrial workshop: Officina Inghirami. The workshop offered the possibility to younger people to learn the art under the guidance of true master teachers.

And walking along the ancient city of Volterra you will still encounter small craftsmen shops where the stone is worked with patience from a  distant era. Sculptors, squarers, turners and decorators who create with skill and follow the delicate stages of alabaster working.

March.2003

Volterra Municipality
Florence Archaeological Museum (In Italian)
Museo Guarnacci