Lioz—A Royal Stone in Portugal and a Monumental Stone in Colonial Brazil
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Geoheritage https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-017-0267-7 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Lioz—a Royal Stone in Portugal and a Monumental Stone in Colonial Brazil Zenaide C. G. Silva1 Received: 23 July 2017 /Accepted: 26 October 2017 # The European Association for Conservation of the Geological Heritage 2017 Abstract Lioz is a Cretaceous, microcrystalline limestone Keywords Lioz limestone . Royal Stone . Heritage stone . which occurs in Portugal and outcrops in Lisbon and neigh- Monumental . Portugal boring counties. The rock color is usually ivory and, less com- monly, pink among others. Its fossiliferous content imprints a unique pattern to the rock, contributing to its decorative appli- Introduction cation. The rock has been used in Portugal as a good quality material for construction for a long period, from the sixteenth The use of stone as construction material has long been known century to the present. Along the eighteenth century, its wide and its evolution follows, to a certain extent, the path of the use in monuments and official buildings gave it the recogni- evolution of humanity. Wherever the occupation of land by tion as the BRoyal Stone^ in Portugal. Lisbon has the best man takes place, there is the necessity to construct shelter, display of lioz as a fundamental stone in several monuments homes, official buildings, churches, and all sort of monuments of different ages, official buildings, and many churches. to register historic facts and occurrences related to society Among the latter, the Jesuit Church of São Roque is a special development. Human activities show clearly the close rela- example, in which interior chapels expose a rich variety of tionship between natural resources and their use as raw mate- inlays (embutidos), inspired on Italian churches. Not rials for constructions in some specific places. The geologic far from Lisbon, Mafra exhibits a monumental architec- framework of different areas on Earth is associated with con- tural set of three integrated constructions built in the structions since it shapes the availability of materials (in this eighteenth century by King D. João V using lioz lime- case, rocks). This circumstance explains the fact that in certain stone. Along the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, areas of France one finds calcarenite as the main stone mate- the rock was carried to some Portuguese colonies, main- rial in churches, in Rome a large amount of constructions ly as ballast of boats and used at the destinations as made of travertine, and the presence of Carrara marble in most construction material. Salvador in Bahia, Brazil is the churches and sculptures in all Italy. Many examples could be best example, where lioz is beautifully used in monu- given and this fact is a natural result of having specific rocks ments and as true art in many churches of Portuguese occurring at specific places as reflex of the geological history and Italian influences. These facts make the Portuguese lioz as of that area. Portugal is no exception to that and part of its the most representative Heritage stone present in Portugal and history is Bcarved^ in exposed rocks all over the country. its old colonies abroad. Corresponding to the diversity of rocks in the whole Portuguese territory, old constructions are mostly of granitic composition in the northern part of the country, while con- structions in limestone are more abundant in the central area, marbles have an expressive presence in Alentejo (south of the * Zenaide C. G. Silva [email protected] Tagus River), granitoids and similar rocks along Algarve, and the lioz limestone in Lisbon and neighboring areas. 1 GeoBioTec, Earth Science Department, FCT-UNL, The extensive use of lioz in Lisbon has an explanation: dur- 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal ing the sixteenth century, the Portuguese maritime activities and Geoheritage discoveries plus the commercial expansion both in the main- Unit C2, in dark green. Outcrops of the lioz limestone are also land and overseas stimulated the construction of buildings, for- identified in several localities between Lisbon and Sintra, like tifications, and churches. The lioz limestone, being a natural Oeiras and Paço d’Arcos, where the rock was used. Quarries stone of good properties as a construction material, being nice were exploited since Roman times. Descriptions of these looking and locally available became the natural source of rock quarries in Lisbon and their locations are available (Pinto for all those constructions. Lisbon was then a cosmopolitan 2005). This helps the understanding of both source and trans- town, a very active European port where trading merchandises portation of blocks for the construction of some monuments, as coming from the Orient, Africa, and Brazil was intense. In for example the Aguas Livres Acqueduct, (Fig. 2), near addition to that, the reconstruction of the city after the 1755 Alcântara, where quarries were also exploited. This construc- earthquake, when Lisbon was partially destroyed, intensified tion dates from 1713 to 1748 and is one of the oldest construc- the rhythm of constructions. The center of the city was rebuilt tions of public relevance in Lisbon. Near the aqueduct, the lioz having that stone as the main building material; several quarries limestone outcrops exposing horizontal layers (about 50 cm were located nearby and transportation was an easy task. thickness), as observed in Fig. 3. The location of this outcrop Architects were recruited to design the main official buildings is now recognized as a Geosite, the Geomonument Avenida and catholic churches flourished. Today, the use of lioz lime- Calouste Gulbenkian. Another Geosite is also recognized in an stone in Lisbon is again very intense, on building façades, on old quarry in the neighborhood, the Rio Seco Monument interiors of residences and public places, and as pavement of (Lopes 2017). Most quarries in Lisbon are unknown at present; metro stations, contributing to give luminosity to the city and they are either extinguished or hidden by buildings as result of strengthening its historic position as the main georesource and an increase of the urban population. Nowadays, the locality geoheritage stone, present in almost all monuments of several which best testimonies the past and present exploitation of ages and different architectonic styles. the lioz limestone is Pero Pinheiro, where old and actual The scope of this work is to call attention to this unique quarries can be visited (Fig. 4), while blocks of lioz are seen Blisbonense^ rock, identified in the Lisbon area and its enclosed by residences. From Pero Pinheiro, a great volume of vicinity, which was exploited in Lisbon in the past and has rock was extracted in the eighteenth Century to build the Mafra been exploited in Sintra for a long time until present day. The Complex, the large architectonical ensemble of three monu- path followed by its use, all over Portugal and in old mental buildings: Basilica, Library, and Convent, during the Portuguese Colonies, particularly in Brazil, during centuries, reign of D. João V, beautifully described by Gandra (1995, gives the rock a special status and fulfills the requirements 1998). Martins (1991) reports the occurrence of several varie- established by Cooper et al. (2013)tobeconsidereda ties of lioz in Lameiras and East Pero Pinheiro as the main Heritage Stone. occurrences of the rock and indicates the total inventory esti- mated in 13,741,910 tons. These numbers should be higher today as the industry is active in its exploitation. Geologic Occurrence The lioz limestone occurs in a Cretaceous (Mid Turonian) Unit Petrography, Chemical Composition described initially by Choffat (1900), identified as a BCrystalline limestone with rudists^ (Caprinula d’Orbigny, The lioz limestone has a simple petrography; the macroscopic Sauvagesia sharpei, and others). Limestones occur in a more identification emphasizes the color and the fossil rich texture. extensive area of central-western Portugal extending up to The rock can be described as an ivory or light pink color, Upper Tertiary time having units with different faunas. microcrystalline, bioclastic, fossiliferous limestone. Its fossil Zbyszewski (1963) summarizes the stratigraphy of the content of Rudists, bivalves of Cretaceous age, is a very strong Cretaceous established by Choffat (1900) based on the study feature of this rock printing its decorative effect. Different of sequences in the quarries in the Lisbon area as Campolide, colors of the lioz limestone are known, being more common Rio Seco, Monsanto, Vale de Alcântara, Belem. The lioz hori- the light ivory color, the dark pink variety, known as zon overlays a Lower Turonian marly limestone and in turn is Encarnadão and the Amarelo Negrais, a dark yellow type overlain by layers of Upper Turonian pink marl, limestone which corresponds to a facies variation of the lioz, containing with rudists, and a marly limestone. The fossil content of the hydrated iron oxide (limonite). Other colors are identified in microcrystaline lioz limestone corresponds to a shallow, clear, old buildings or churches where it was used as a decorative and warm water, typical of reef environment. Callapez (2008) material, in a restricted manner. Light gray and dark purplish refers to the lioz as a platform limestone while discussing its red are examples of such use. Figure 5 (a–d) illustrates the occurrence in Alcântara (Lisbon), Negrais, and Pero Pinheiro. macroscopic aspect of the most common varieties: Lioz, Figure 1 is an excerpt of the geological map of Portugal (IGM, Chainnette, Encarnadão,andAmarelo Negrais. Calcite 1992) where the lioz (limestone with rudists) corresponds to makes the totality of minerals in all varieties of the lioz Geoheritage Fig. 1 Excerpt of the Geologic Map of Portugal, 1/500,000 5th Ed., IGM (Geological and Mining Institute), 1992 limestone, except for the Amarelo Negrais, where fine dolo- texture, and being very compact, made it a good construction mite (< 6%) is a minor accessory followed by traces of material that could be used also for structural purposes.