El redescubrimiento del marmor saetabitanum como mármol buixcarró

Résumé

The so-called "marble" buixcarró is an orange-to-pink stylolithic limestone Late Cretaceous in age. It is currently extracted from the vicinity of Barxeta (province of Valencia), mainly from two quarries, the Barxeta Quarry and the Sierra de Buixcarró quarry, from where it takes its name. The "marble" is abundant in the Roman settlements of the Eastern Iberian Peninsula, being known by the Romans as marmor saetabitanum for its origin near Saetabis (Xativa), probably from a quarry near the present village of L'Enova. At the end of the Roman era quarries were abandoned, however, the Roman remains are recycled so pieces of marmor saetabitanum can be found from the Islamic era. In 1648 a contract was signed between the master stonemason Joaquin Bernabeu and the Cistercian community of Santa Maria de la Valldigna in which was signed that for the works of the new church (the previous one was destroyed in 1644 by an earthquake) marble form the newly discovered quarry will be widely used. The marble in question is the buixcarró that appears in the constructions of the monastery of Valldigna built after the earthquake of 1644 but it is not found in any rest built before. The Sierra de Buixcarró is in the monastery influence area, so if the quarry had been active before the buixcarró would have been used in the construction of what was, according to his contemporaries, the richest monastery of the Aragon Crown.