Green Courtil Stone®
The Green Courtil Stone® quarry, located over 1,500 meters above sea level in the communes of Hone-Pontboset (Aosta), has always been the source of a material of great importance and prestige for the local area. The Green Courtil Stone® has been used in numerous historical projects and appreciated for its timeless beauty. These include the roofing of the Fortress of Bard and various castles in Valle d’Aosta, such as those of Fénis, Introd and Passerin d’Entrèves in Châtillon. It would also attest that in 1913, its exceptional quality earned it a gold medal at the Milan exhibition. The quarry was reached in ancient times by means of a long mule track, the subject of repeated maintenance campaigns and still partly passable today, which workers used to transport material (particularly the so-called “lose,” typical stone slabs generally used in the region as roof coverings or for paving) by means of hand-driven sledges. A first road was built in 1890, which was not paved until 1997, facilitating the connection with the valley floor. Since then, the Green Courtil Stone® knows no boundaries and is exported and appreciated all over the world.
The Material
The arabesque pattern is the result of a double series of stresses the rock has undergone over geologic time. The white veins reflect a mixture of quartz and albite, the green plaques indicate the presence of minerals in which iron and magnesium crystallize, elements from the deepest parts of the Earth’s crust. Finally, the yellow to pistachio-green spreads are due to epidote, a silicate with calcium and iron that we often find on the surface. This material is characterized by exceptional toughness, allowing processing with minimal thicknesses even with extensive lumps.
The finished work
The blocks once quarried are sawn into slabs following foliation and washed by high-pressure water jets. For uses as ornamental stone and for interiors, the slabs undergo further brushing with diamond-wire grinding wheels, which enhances their velvety appearance, fine graininess, and soft resistance to the touch. This refined material has found and is widely used for interior and exterior flooring and cladding in Switzerland, France, Austria and Germany as well as in Italy and particularly in the Aosta Valley, possibly in combination with rustic and fine woods.
