«Di marmo rosso lustro con vene bianche». A Stone for Architecture in San Marco d’Alunzio in the seventeenth Century

Among the red stones used in Sicilian architecture during the modern age, either for decorative or structural purposes, those extracted from the eastern side of the island are characterized by a long continuity of use, characterizing architecture in these areas from ancient times to the contemporary period. This essay focuses on the use, in architecture, of the so-called red marble of San Marco d’Alunzio, which is very similar in appearance to the stone of Taormina. Though with some exceptions, its distribution, in the modern era, was limited to the centers closest to the extraction sites.