Slate: a journey through history and tradition

Slate: a journey through history and tradition

Using slate for house roofs

Its use as a roofing material dates back to ancient times and had its heyday in the medieval and then the Renaissance periods.

It is believed that slate was first used about two thousand two hundred years ago in the Tigullio area, in the area between the town of Lavagna and the Fontanabuona Valley in Liguria.
Its use predates the time of Roman rule. In fact, a necropolis consisting of tombs made entirely of this material was found in Chiavari, near Lavagna.

Slate is thought to have been known in Roman times as well, although the first quarries for the extraction of black stone date back to the 10th-11th centuries.
The first deposits to be intensively exploited from the 12th century onward were those in Uscio and Recco, in the Fontanabuona valley.

Other deposits were located in the Cuneo area (Piedmont) and in the Camonica Valley (Lombardy). In recent times slate has had a revival in architectural use for the restoration of historic buildings, furniture and interior finishing and embellishment.

In particular, there are numerous later documents attesting to the demand of "abbadini" for slate to cover the roofs of churches, giving the possibility to locate ancient quarries and speculate on the methods of extraction and transportation of the material.

The traditional use of slate as a building material is especially widespread in Liguria,where there are "slate routes" that descend steeply from the quarries near the ridges to the valley and the coast.