The Verbano Cusio Ossola province: A land of quarries in northern Italy (Piedmont)

The Verbano Cusio Ossola province (Piedmont, north-western Italy) is one of the most important quarrying areas due to the peculiarity of its exploited rock types; actually this is one of the few areas in Italy with ornamental stones represented mainly by orthogneisses such as Serizzo and Beola and subordinately by granites, marbles and finally ultramafites and carbonatic rocks. The exploitation dates back to the Roman period and is nowadays strongly improved also because of the development of technology. This work describes the historical use, the petrography, the physical and chemical properties (for orthogneisses) and the exploitation technology of the different rock types, evidencing, for the metamorphic rocks occurring in the Ossola Valley, the strong connection between textural features and geological setting which produces several varieties within each rock type.