Carrara marble in the Dionysos Theater of the Acropolis in Athens. Carrara marble Carrara marble is a type of white or blue-grey marble of high quality, popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It is quarried in the city of Carrara located in the province of Massa and Carrara in the Lunigiana, the northernmost tip of modern-day Tuscany, Italy. Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the marble quarries were monitored by the Cybo and Malaspina families who ruled over Massa and Carrara. The family created the "Office of Marble" in
History of Tuscany the Lombard conquest in 569. Tuscany was made a Duchy, its seat in Lucca. After the destruction of the Lombard kingdom by Charlemagne, it became a county first, and then a march. In the 11th century the marquisate went to the Attoni family from Canossa, who also held Modena, Reggio Emilia and Mantua. Matilda of Canossa was their most famous member. In this period Tuscany acquired many castles, abbeys and monasteries, while the main towns started again to grow demographically, turning themselves into communes mostly independent from the Holy Roman Empire. Lucca was in fact the first commune in Italy;