GEOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION: THE FORMATION OF THE “ROSSO AMMONITICO VERONESE” A long, long time ago in the story of the world, about 170 millions year ago, the region who corresponds to the hills of the “Monti Lessini” was composed of a big boarded (Planked) imerged place in the profundity of the sea “Tetide”, the present Mediterranean. In the period called Jurassic, while on the emerged lands there was living the dinosauriers, for an interval of about 30 millions of the years the sediments were accumulating in the profundity of this antiquate, open sea, giving like that the derivation to the formation of the “Rosso Ammonitico Veronese”. Actual this deposits, surfaced for the mountains formaion and trasformed in stone with slow. Diagenetic proceedings, are famous to everybody and are doing a bell exposition of them in the cities of stone in the high “Lessini” and the sommital part of the prominences, which are characterizing the morphologie of the “Lessin” valleys. The “Rosso Ammonitico Veronese” has a Thickness collectively of 30-35 meters and is composed of a lot of limenstone generally modulary, sometimes solid, finest grained, of variable colors: from red to brick red and violett red, from coral rose to flesh-colour (carnation) from yellow to white, rich of fossils, especially Ammonit’s, where comes the name from. These are the lime stones, which are extracted since a long time ago in lot of quarries, furnishing the most famous and characteristic, different coloured, veronese marbles. MARMORACEUS POLES In the “Lessin” mountains the nearness of stone material and the possibility to from producing activity’s has caused the beginning, since the last century, two big marmoraceous poles, situated at Sant’Ambrogio di Valpolicella and in the inhabitated centers of the Valpantena. CHARACTERIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOODS The excavation and the woring up of the stone, already practiced in the antiquity by the Egyptian and the Greek, has taken a big evolution in Italy during the roman period. Passing the centuries the use of the stony material was characterizing the aspect of the italian cities and during the rennaissance caused moreover an craze of decoration stones. About the end of 1700 the invention of mechanical sawing allowed the start of an initial, economic activity withing the scope of stone. The hole formation of the Rosso Ammonitico usually is divided into 3 “groups” , which on their part are differing in stratum with different thickness in the tecnical, sphere, from the bottom toward the top, we recognize the group of the “Nembro”, of the “Sengia” and of the “Cimieri”. The course’s of the “Nembro” are including some of the most famous, veronese marbles, with different colours from yellow to brown, from rose to red. These stones are adapted to be cut and polished, they have an optimal solidity against the frost and they can be used even for the outside. The principalò utilization is in the sector of floors, steps, casign columns, ornamental columns, pales, frames, fireplaces, sculpture works, ecc. The course’s of th “Sengia” are composed of lime stones very rich of ammonits, with colours from brick red to violet red; because of their fragility, those limestones are used for production of gravels of like drowned blocks, even if they have a good property for polishing and solidity against rost. The group of the “Cimieri” presents the most blevated part of the “Rosso”, the typical marble is made of Coral Rose, a compact limestone with rose colour, polishable, sculpturable, has a solidity against frost, and it is used for the insides. Because of his geomechanical properties, the Rosso Verona has been used for building or embellishing a lot of monuments, in Italy and in the foreign countries. Between the many cities we cite Verona (Arena, S. Fermo, S. Zeno, S. Anastasia, S. Eufemia, SS:Apostoli, the place of the Chamber of Commerce, the Place of the Bank Popolare and Cariverona, the Building of the Post Office, the Church of Madonna della Corona), Venice (Palazzo Ducale, Cà Vallerosso, Cà Mosto, Palazzo
Bosco, Cà D’Oro, Piazza S. Marco), Padova (Grave of Antenore, Loggia del Consiglio), Vicenza (Palazzo Longhi-Zen, Palazzo Colleoni, Cathedral Palladiana), Brescia (Church of santa Maria dei Miracoli, San Francesco, Loggia del Monte di Pietà Vecchio), Bergamo ( Chapel Colleoni), Rimini (tempio Malatestiano), Cremona (Cathedral, Battistero), Milano (Passage V. Emanuele), Al-Ishaa, Arabia Saudita (Guest Palace Hotel), Nizza (Town Hotel), Ginevra (Monoument of Duca di Brunswich), Berlin Building of the Post Office), Zuerich (Building of the Post Office). Dr. Romano Rizzotto - Geologist GROUP
LOCAL NAME OF STRATA
TRADE NAME OF THE “MARBLE”
G. del Nembro
Brandesà , Gialeto, Roan, Rigà, Corso Grosso, Brocà, C. del Sanguigno, C. del meso par sorte, C. del sesanta, C. de la Lastra Grisa, Lastra del Brocadel, Rosso Fogoso.
Gialletto, Roan, Rigà, Verdello, Nembro Rosato, Rosso Verona, Giallo Verona, Mandorlato, Rosso Broccato, Rosso Sanguigno.
G. del Sengia
Mesoloni, C. grosso, C. del sesanta, C. de l’ancuseno, C. grosso e del rosà, C. frastornà e c. paglierino.
Rosso magnaboschi, Rosato, Rosso gentile, Paglierino
G. dei Cimieri
Lastra tredes’onse de fondo, C. del sesanta, C. Rosa Corallo dei moi, C. del pè e meso o dei du, C. dei tri, C. bianco, C. de le quatro lastre, C. del sesanta soto a pile, Lastra de le pile, C. mato, C. dei simieri, Mesoloni, Lastra Bianca, Pelandre, C. dei quaranta, C. de la mola, Lastre, C. de l’ancuseno.
TECNICAL DATA From the tecnical aspect, the Rosso Ammonitico Veronese is know like Rosso Verona and has exact, physical chemical properties
Specific weight
2,7 t/m3
Breakness
800:-1.800 kg/cm2
Bending resistance
100:-150 kg/cm2
Coefficient of imbibition
0,11:-0,18%
Coefficient from the rectilinear extensions
0,005:-0,01 mm/m°C