The word marble derives from the ancient Greek verb “marmairo” (μαρμαίρω) - "to shine", “to glow”. Marble is a metamorphic natural rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. The exact mix of minerals and the specific geologic conditions determine its texture, color, veining, and physical-mechanical properties.
This formation has enabled marble to achieve the highest building standards in a wide array of architecture and decorating projects for thousands of years. It is one of the most resistant of natural materials impervious both to abrasions and impacts. The ease with which it is cleaned and maintained guarantees durability and brightness without comparison.
Marble is mined worldwide in a great variety of textures and appearances. Soft and elegant whites to the deepest black hues. With blue or green tones, some with subtle veins and others more intense.
Greece is considered to be the source of world-class quality white and semi-white marble with historical value. A precious type of marble characterized for its translucency, which allows light to enter and produce a soft glow making it a timeless stone. The Parthenon, the Kouros, Venus de Milo, and the Caryatides of the Erechtheion are some of the masterpieces connected to this impeccable material, still harvested today from the same quarries. Thus, Greece is ranked among the major producers and exporters of marble at a global level.
The knowledge and technical expertise has been continuously transferred from one generation to the next and that has enabled family owned companies to dynamically expand in the worldwide industry. It is therefore an integral part of Greek heritage and culture.
Villy Margariti-Dalacoura creates VMD objects using a selection of distinctive types of marble extracted only from quarries in Greece. Greek marble is the appropriate material to express the aesthetic, vision and passion of the architect, for objects with individuality and elegance.
The principal modern quarries in Greece can be found in the rich in marble regions of Drama, Kavala-Thasos (Eastern Macedonia), Kozani-Veria, Ioannina, Volos, Dionysos-Penteli, Livadia-Helicon, as well as in other regions, such as, Argolida, Euboea, Skyros, Naxos, Paros, Crete and Tinos. Apart from white marble, there are also other excellent varieties of colored marble, as well as travertine and onyx that are quarried.
