Les marbres, données géologiques et questions de restaurations

• Main Author: Annie Blanc
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles 2013-01-01
• Series: Bulletin du Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/crcv/13623

What is marble? Let us try and agree on the term. White, grey and pink marble is made of calcite (or dolomite) crystals contiguous of more or less large size (from less than a millimetre up to more than a centimetre). To distinguish them from each other, chemical analysis is necessary (trace elements, carbon and oxygen isotopes).Masons worked different limestone rocks, which they polished and used decoratively, including limestone marble, nodular limestone, Griotte, Breccia, conglomerates and siliceous rocks like porphyry, serpentine, quartzite, etc. Study and description of these and other calcareous rocks allows, in most cases, the identification of their origin.As part of the restoration, it was necessary to identify the marble and ornamental rocks, to find out whether they were still quarried, and if not, to make replacements, particularly for the floors. In the cases where the quarries have been abandoned, as for freestone, a substitute rock is sought, after employing all the marble workers’ old stock. For Versailles, there is a reserve from the Lebeau company from Saint-Amour in the Jura when it ceased its activities.