Pedrera de marès - Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, Islas Baleares, España
N 39° 34.605 E 003° 23.540
31S E 533695 N 4380855
Former Marés (limestone) quarry from the 17th century on the peninsula Punta de n'Amer
Waymark Code: WMXRB4
Location: Islas Baleares, Spain
Date Posted: 02/19/2018
Views: 11
Marès (Pedra maresa, also known as Pedra arenisca, Castilian: Marés, Piedra de Marés) is the local name of a special limestone, a so-called lime arenit. It occurs on the Balearic Islands and is there the traditionally architectural building stone. Marès consists mainly of the minerals calcite and aragonite.
Since the Marès is a soft rock, it could easily be obtained traditionally with special tools. The cuboid was cleared on four sides with a hoe, which has two cutting edges at its ends - transversely to the machining direction. This creates an approximately 3 centimeters wide circumferential groove, which limits the size of the cuboid. When the required depth in the rock has been reached, wedge holes with different distances have been hammered into the underside with the hoe. In these wedge holes wedges were used, which optimized the splitting direction by inserting two so-called springs.
Often, the built structure is right next to the quarry, which was built exclusively for the construction of a building, such as the construction of the Castell de sa Punta de n'Amer ( (
visit link) ).
Source: Wikipedia (translated)