A-Z of Self Build Guides Guide to Italian Stone

Date Published:

02/06/2008

In Britain, stone is a luxury material. It's expensive. But in Italy, particularly in Puglia, it's everywhere you look. The second biggest mining centre in Italy, Puglia provides 20% of national stone production. We scour the region to find some fantastic Italian stone.

Pietra Leccese

There's a whole world of Italian stone at a fraction of the price you'd expect to pay in Britain - like the Italian equivalent to limestone, Pietra Leccese. So what are its qualities?

Roberto Maci from Blanoc Quarries in Pugliam, explains. 'It's very soft when you carve it out of the ground, so it's very easy to work. But at the same time, it hardens over time. You can see the colour is quite light and pale and it's very strong - but it's also very soft and you can break it with your hands.'

It's also very cheap. 'The price is very competitive,' says Roberto. 'From 10 euros per square metre, to 40-50 euros, maximum.'

If you had a whole house to be built out of this, it would almost make sense to hire a van, drive down from England, buy the stone here and take it back. Especially when you compare the price to more than £100 per square metre for British limestone!

It's not only the price that makes this stone special, though. It's very malleable when it comes out of the ground. You can carve it really easily, which means it has many different uses. You could use it in a fireplace, as a table, for decorative items and claddings, for flooring.

Lecce, known as Florence of the South, is famous for its extravagant baroque carved architecture, and it's built entirely out of that soft yellow stone in the workshop. This leccese stone is multi talented - it's fine-grained enough to create smooth walls, but also soft enough to carve into these wedding cake extravaganzas.

The downside is that in Britain, it needs to be sealed to protect it from our damp weather and pollution. Bear in mind that this stone is very soft and left to its own devices it'll weather into some peculiar patterns - but don't worry; these buildings have been here for the last 500 years.