Stone is extracted at quarries by various methods. The stone that stonemasons use in new pieces of work has to be of the best possible quality. In the past, when stone was quarried by pure muscle power, every piece was used, and the poorer quality stone was hidden away in walls or foundations. Today, in the age of cutting machines* and diamond wire, people have become more particular. In the past, every town had at least one quarry, or more often several quarries. As transport was very laborious and costly in the times of ox-drawn carts, most medieval fortresses, cathedrals and houses were built using stone straight from the local area.

Most quarries closed down as time went on. In modern-day Switzerland, approximately 200,000 cubic metres of natural stone is extracted per year at 71 quarries. If you would like to know where stone is quarried in your region, or what type of stone occurs where, just visit www.naturstein.swiss.