Page 9 - Annuario-2021

Mercato dei Grani 1821-1823 (Brescia)
Mercato dei Grani 1821-1823 (Brescia)

A REPUTATION SCULPTED IN STONE
Archaeology tells us that since Botticino Classico was first used more than 2,000 years ago, its history has
run in parallel with that of the area in which it is quarried.
Brescia was its main market from the first century A.D. to the nineteenth century and the town offers
numerous examples of the use of Botticino Classico marble in structural and ornamental contexts,
including the Tempio Capitolino, a masterpiece of Roman architecture, the grandiose medieval base of
the Torre del Broletto and two jewels of the Renaissance: the Palazzo della Loggia, on which both Palladio
and Sansovino worked, and the sculpted façade of Santa Maria dei Miracoli. In the 17th century, Botticino
Classico triumphed in the baroque art of the Duomo Nuovo. Starting in the second half of the nineteenth
century, the Industrial Revolution brought about the modernisation of the production fabric in the area and
acted as a driving force behind new urban planning projects in Rome and throughout the world.
With the construction of the Palace of Justice in Rome, as well as the Vittoriano complex of monuments,
sales of Botticino Classico boomed and numerous new orders built its reputation both in Italy and
internationally. In 1904 it crossed the Atlantic to clad the huge interiors of Grand Central Terminal in
New York. Then it became a symbol of power and financial stability at the new headquarters of Banca
Commerciale Italiana in Piazza della Scala in Milan, while in the 1930s it won the heart of Giuseppe
Terragni, the “enfant prodige” of Italian architecture. The rest is history in the making.
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