La pietra e l'architettura. Analisi storica e materica del materiale lapideo nel territorio di Cosenza / The stone and the architecture. Historical analysis of stone material in the territory of Cosenza

Since the XIX century until nowadays, the lithological variety, the ability of the stone cutters of Calabria and the presence of a lot of quarries have influenced the history of the local economy, as testified in literature. The area of Cosenza Province is very reach of quarry areas, some of them are still used. They had a very important role in the past for the realization of the architectonical heritage of the old towns and for their decorative elements. Analyzing mamposteries in some old towns of the Province of Cosenza, taken as the case study, it can be notice the presence of recurrent stone materials: pebbles of the Crati River, belonging to granite or gneiss stones of the “Sila Batholith” formation, mainly used for ordinary masonries; white and compact limestones, indicated as "biancolella" by stonemasons and commercially known as "tuff of Mendicino", mainly used for structural elements and its components; calcarenitic Miocenic limestones, softer, whitish or yellowish or reddish sharply, which outcrop in the southern Tyrrhenian Coastal Range, used mainly for floors, doors and for all the elements exposed to weathering; dolomitic limestone, limestones and dolostones, which characterize the mamposteries of the historical centers of the Pollino Area and of the Tyrrhenian coast. The purpose of this study is to investigate some local stones, used by the most important schools of stonemasons of Calabria and to focus on how properties of different building materials have influenced the figurative and architectural models in the Cosenza Province.