The Story |
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Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century the transport of blocks of marble, obtained with strength and danger from the quarries in the Apuan Alps, was carried out using Roman-type carts pulled by oxen. In the 19th century they began to think of alternative means of transport which could speed up and make more efficient to carry the unprocessed blocks down towards the sawmills or the beaches of Marina-Avenza. The use of oxen continued in part even after the arrival of new means of transport. Infact to carry down the famous " monolito " ( a block of marble 17 metres long and 2.34 metres high and large, without any veins or cracks, which was intended for "Mussolini forum " in 1929 ) they used a cart pulled by thirty pairs of oxen. |
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The birth of a private "marmifera" railway in Carrara was very tortuous and complicated. Infact they had begun to speak of the possibility to carry out a railway which could raise the level of productivity in the marble sector since 1830. However more than fourty years were necessary to get the license to build. There were very frequent changes of opinion and different groups of contractors and planners followed one another. The matter roused much controversy even between the commune of Carrara and the national government and at last the winner was Carrara. The first project was prepared in 1869 by the engineers Carlo Willy and Pietro Ganzoni on commission of Mr. Giuseppe Troyse-Barba, of Florentine origine, who had stipulated an agreement with Carrara commune in 1867. That project provided for the fulfilment of a traditional steam traction railway from the Marina of Avenza to the stations in the mountain over " Bivio dei Bardi ( Canalie ) and Piastra ". First they dropped the idea to reach the marble basins of " Ravaccione,Fantiscritti and Colonnata " because of the excessive imcline and radius of curvatura. |
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