Understanding Estremoz marble from Portugal

Welcome to the Natural Stone Outlet podcast! The podcast where you can listen to the latest information about the most popular natural stones, its surface finishes, applications and much more..

In this episode, we will propose a marble that is perhaps the main reference marble in Portugal: the Estremoz marble.

The Estremoz marble is extracted around the area of the village of Estremoz, which explains the marble´s name. Together with the two other marble villages, Borba and Vila Viçosa, Estremoz is internationally known for its fine marble showing different colors: white, cream, pink or grey.

The main economic activities around this area, in addition to wine and olive oil producing, is the marble extraction and production, with Portugal as one of the largest exporter of marble in the world.

The Estremoz marble itself, is a white colored marble showing a uniform background, with a medium grain structure, considerable hardness and slight brownish veins. It may also present some occasional light pink / brown colored areas. This is the most important marble in Portugal, with a strong position in the market.

Its main variations will depend on the white background uniformity and consistence, on the amount of darker colored vein on its surface, but also if it includes other colors such as pink or grey.

As a white marble, the most common type of surface finish is the polished. It is the polished surface that most highlights the beauty of this marble, showing a strong shine and all its elements at its best. Other surface finishes that can be found are honed, brushed or sandblasted.

The Estremoz White is a wonderful marble that has been used for centuries in Portugal, where it can be found on various historic building in the country. But are today´s applications that are making this marble so popular and on-demand, with impressive applications found on interior flooring, wall coverings, detailed stonework, masonry and different interior design applications.

The Estremoz marble can also be found on cladding and is a fantastic choice for marble sculpture projects.

Despite the relentless extraction of this marble in the Estremoz area in the past decades, which left many quarries with huge depth completely unused and many factories closed, this marble has seen a strong recovery in the past couple of years with new quarries being opened for extraction and older quarries being recycled and in use again.

The raw material is there and new companies with a modern approach for extraction are leading the way into a new era of Portuguese white marble.

That´s it about the Estremoz marble, the reference white marble from Portugal. If you would like to know more information about this fantastic marble, visit our blog on www.naturalstone-outlet.com/blog.

You can also check our Natural Stone Outlet youtube channel, where we have some videos showing this beautiful white marble.

Thank you for listening!