Pilasters in Rouge de Rance in the "Galerie des Glaces"
The red "marble" of Rance in the Belgian province of Hainaut knew a large popularity as a prestigious building material for decorative use. Although it was exploited since Roman Antiquity it became most renowned since the 17th century because of its prolific use in the Royal Chateau of Versailles built for the French king Louis XIV. Large quantities were used for the most prestigious parts of the building, including the interior wall decoration of the "Galerie des Glaces" (Hall of Mirrors) and the columns of the main portico on the "Cour des Marbres" (Marble Courtyard). To satisfy the vast demand needed for Versailles and other French royal residences a new quarry was opened and subsequently named "Trou de Versailles" (hole of Versailles).
Since the 18th century "Rouge de Rance" was also popular as a material for fireplaces and clocks, and as a top for furniture such as commodes, tables or Several Belgian red limestones, including "Rouge de Rance" were later marketed under the main name "Rouge Belge" (Belgian Red). These limestone varieties are commonly referred to as "red marble", although they are not real marbles but sedimentary rocks.
Walloon Brabant is a province of Wallonia and Belgium. It borders on the province of Flemish Brabant and the provinces of Liège, Namur and Hainaut (Wallonia). Its capital and largest city is Wavre.
Marble has been the preferred material for stone monumental sculpture since ancient times, with several advantages over its more common geological "parent" limestone, in particular the ability to absorb light a small distance into the surface before refracting it in subsurface scattering. This gives an attractive soft appearance that is especially good for representing human skin, which can also be polished.
Belœil is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
Lessines is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. As of the 2014 census, The municipality's total population was 18,637. The total area is 72.29 km² which gives a population density of 247 inhabitants per km².
Sivry-Rance is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
Carrara marble, Luna marble to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa and Carrara in the Lunigiana, the northernmost tip of modern-day Tuscany, Italy.
Jan Bucquoy is a Belgian anarchist who has worked in various media. He gained fame for his controversial anti-establishment works and media stunts, which caused many court cases, including for lèse-majesté, copyright infringement and defamation. Between 2005 and 2010 he staged five attempts to attack the Belgian Royal Palace in Brussels and conquer it. Internationally he is best known as a film director, with La Vie sexuelle des Belges 1950–1978 (1994) and the cult film Camping Cosmos (1996) being his most famous movies. A recurring theme in his work is Belgitude.
Griotte is a cultural and old trade name given to a type of marbles and limestones. The natural stone is deep cherry-red in colour, often flecked with small dashes of purple and/or spots and streaks of white formed by Goniatites or by later cementation. It is common in the south of France, in the Pyrenees and southern Belgium. It is sometimes known as Cannes Marble.
Noir Belge is collective noun referring to black limestone found on several sites in Belgium. Some trade names refer more specifically to the quarry were the material was found, for example "Noir de Mazy" or "Noir de Golzinne". Some Noir belge marble deposit belongs to a fine-grained calcareous sedimentary formation dated Frasnian era and located on the northern border of Namur sedimentary basin. A few black limestones located in the lower Carboniferous
"Rouge Belge" is a collective noun designating diverse Devonian red limestone varieties found in Wallonia (Belgium).
Noir de Golzinne is the only Belgian black (Devonian/Frasnian) limestone that is still exploited today. It is named after the quarry in the Belgian hamlet of Golzinne near Gembloux in the Walloon Region. "Noir de Golzinne" is also the trade name of the geological vein that is currently exploited in nearby Mazy. The names "Mazy" and "Golzinnes" are often used simultaneously.
Belgian marble is the name given to limestone extracted in Wallonia, southern Belgium.
The Temple of Human Passions, also known as Pavillon Horta-Lambeaux, is a neoclassical pavilion in the form of a Greek temple that was built by Victor Horta in 1896 in the Cinquantenaire Park of Brussels (Belgium). Although classical in appearance, the building shows the first steps of the young Victor Horta towards Art Nouveau. It was designed to serve as a permanent showcase for a large marble relief The Human Passions by Jef Lambeaux. Since its completion the building has remained almost permanently closed. Since 2014, the building is accessible during the summer time.
Caunes-Minervois is a small medieval town and commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region in southern France. It is known particularly for its ancient Abbey, dating from the eighth century, and the outstanding red marble that has been quarried locally from Roman times. The name may derive from the ancient local Occitan word for cave, “cauna”, of which there are a number in the immediate area.
Picardy Wallonia or Western Hainaut is the North-West part of the province of Hainaut in Wallonia, where the Picard language is used.
The Château Louis XIV is a château constructed between 2008 and 2011 in the commune of Louveciennes in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region.
The geology of Belgium encompasses rocks, minerals and tectonic events stretching back more than 500 million years. Belgium covers an area of about 30507 square kilometers and was very instrumental in the development of geology. For instance, the extensive outcrops in Belgium became the standard reference points in stratigraphy in as early as the mid-19th century. Some of them are internationally recognized features related to the Carboniferous and the Devonian. These rocks were folded by two orogeny mountain building events --the Hercynian orogeny, and Caledonian Orogeny. Paleozoic basement rocks cover much of the country and are overlain by Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments.
The Decauville railway of the Watissart quarries was a narrow gauge railway of the quartzite and marble quarries in Jeumont in the Département Nord in the Hauts-de-France region. The former quarries have been flooded to create a lake that is now used as a nature reserve and recreational area for fishing, swimming and diving.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
