The white marble from the Stilfserjoch Nature Park is, thanks to its purity and hardness, acknowledged as the unquestioned “King of Marble”, with an unsurpassed quality and lustre.
Once prized by the imperial house of the Habsburgs, the “White Gold of the Alps” is today internationally in demand by renowned architects, designers and artists – and used worldwide.
Excavated from our own quarries, Covelano White Marble is cut, refined and offered by our marble factory in Silandro:
Covelano White Marble, the quality branded article from the Stilfserjoch National Park.
The white marble from the Stilfserjoch National Park has always been an inspiration for pioneers and masterpieces. Fascinated by the radiance of the stone, in 2007 Burkhard Pohl from Kastelbell acquired the quarrying rights in the Stilfserjoch National Park and formed the Göflaner Marmor GmbH company. Since then this South Tyrolean family firm – Burkhard and Elfriede Pohl and their son, Peter – has
successfully transformed the quality product of Covelano White Marble into a worldwide brand. Skill, expertise and passion for the White Gold of the Alps are apparent in all the company’s worldwide business relationships. Optimum customer satisfaction and international demand are the clearly recognisable business goals and successes.
Responsibility for people, nature & region
Covelano White Marble offers users, artists, constructors and architects a piece of geological history from one of the most wonderful Alpine regions, as the best, hardest marble of the world. Its unique origins and the fascination induced by each marble block hewn from the rock is reflected throughout the enterprise.
Efficient and environmentally friendly production, processing in our own marble factory and direct marketing all form the basic structure of the corporate concept, in interaction with an enthusiasm for investment and a passionate innovative spirit. The central pillar of the company is however seen as the people who work there and who are brought together by the white marble.
By creating and maintaining skilled jobs locally, offering both satisfaction and security for the individual and for entire families, the company places its employees at the centre, while responsibility toward the region and a global way of acting go hand in hand.
The uniting of craftsmen and artists, customers and architects, and city and landscape designers with one of the most beautiful building and raw materials of the Alpine region helps maintain, strengthen and develop valuable interpersonal relationships.
Covelano White Marble – a fascinating piece of nature that inspires people, connecting them and helping them achieve common goals.
The Covelano Marmi Srl company combines a wide range of specialists and professions into a strong community of purpose: engineers and quarryman, highly trained specialists in marble working and the enthusiastic sales and marketing team in the company’s head office.
Working on and with a natural product like Covelano White Marble requires independent and team working in equal measure, as well as skill, precision and care – and demands a high degree of responsibility. Safety at work has the highest priority here.
All employees have year-round contracts. Committed and highly qualified, they create and represent the fascinating high-quality branded product that is “Covelano White Marble”.
Together with local partners and project managers we are able to realise highly exclusive projects worldwide. Cut-to-size, from cutting to the final product – in internationally acknowledged realisations.
All slabs can be made available as digitised image documents. We have developed our own Göflan slab scanner, which gives the dimensions on the high-quality image documents and shows colours as they are in reality, thus allowing you to assess and securely select each slab in reflection-free, high-quality photos on your own PC. Architects and customers like to use the data for 3D visualisations and for their online business.
Slabs – high-resolution images for ranges and selections:
Our sales team can advise you in detail!
Processing in our own factory guarantees both the highest accuracy and consistently high quality. Our machinery park contains only precision implements from recognised manufacturers, with some further developed by ourselves. Each saw and each tool is precisely adjusted and co-ordinated with the specific composition of the Covelano White Marble.
The working methods in our marble factory are subject to constant monitoring and are continuously optimised to meet ecological and economic standards. The entire production department now has a closed water circulation system, with wastewater from cutting and processing collected, cleaned in a processing plant, then fed back into the cycle. Airborne dust is for the most part immediately caught and thus neither enters the wastewater, nor breathed in or expelled into the outside air. Our staff are thus protected and natural resources are sustainably preserved.
Covelano White Marble has always had a fascination for human beings who wish to enrich their life and surroundings with sophisticated works of pure marble. Artists and designers too commission us to realise their designs and models by hand.
The stone sculptor Thomas Permann from South Tyrol is in charge of our marble studio. Based on living traditions, here we produce unique items, new and artistic works from the finest Covelano White Marble:
We have objects for viewing in stock all year round and we produce items according to customer wishes; Thomas Permann can be reached in the studio via our works manager.
The systematic quarrying of white marble began in 1856 at the Mitterwandl quarry in Covelano. Up until then, when the sculptor Bernhard Schweizer from Munich first excavated larger quantities, only erratic blocks of the pure white marble – highly prized even then – were processed. From 1866 to 1881 the sculptor Johannes Steinhäuser from Karlsruhe acquired the quarrying rights in Göflan. He was followed by the Viennese companies Union Baugesellschaft, Zeller & Co. and Eduard Hauser.
The upheavals of the world wars interrupted quarrying above Covelano from 1921 until 1959-60. Work then recommenced with the companies Lasa Marmo (until 1999) and Tiroler Marmorwerke GmbH (from 2005). In 2007 Burkhard Pohl from South Tyrol took over the rights to the Covelano quarry. Fascinated by the high-quality white natural stone with its varied forms of expression and use in architecture, art and handicrafts, the Pohl family formed their own company, Göflaner Marmor GmbH.
White gold for regents and popes
Marble has since time immemorial inspired the fantasies and imagination of those who live in its proximity. Thus the Vinschgau Valley in South Tyrol is home to testimonies, thousands of years old, of our attachment to the rock’s white splendour. Prehistoric menhirs and Roman milestones along the former Via Claudia Augusta are impressive examples of this.
In the Middle Ages men ornamented their churches, castles and palaces with marble and created reverential portals, triumphal arches, columns, reliefs and sculptures, both here in Tyrol and much further afield. At the beginning of the 16th century, in the Vinschgau in particular, a local and sharply defined style of stone statuary developed that saw numerous valuable works of art produced. Especially worthy of note are the beautiful court arcades of Dornsberg Castle, works in Obermontani Castle and in the Churburg near Schluderns. The “Rose Queen Relief” in Latsch, dating from around 1700, is also remarkable, and even after 300 years its marble gleam is undimmed.
The white stone from South Tyrol was particularly highly prized by the regents of the Viennese court and numerous works of art were produced that continue to please viewers to this day. They include the monument to the poet Grillparzer in the Volksgarten park in Vienns (made by Kundmann and Weyr), and the “Land Power” (Hellmer) and “Sea Power” (Weyr) groups of figures in the Vienna Hofburg Palace.
The white marble from South Tyrol was also transformed into remarkable works of art in Germany: two white lions ornament the Feldherrnhalle in Munich, while in Berlin stood the monument to the General Moltke (1903-04). As a raw block, however, the Moltke monument exceeded the capacities of the time. With a volume of approximately 30 cubic metres and a weight of over 80 tonnes, laborious physical work was required to bring this stone colossus down to valley.
South Tyrolean white marble also became highly prized outside the German-speaking areas. The tomb of Pope Pius IX in the Church of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura in Rome is made of white marble.
While Covelano White Marble was formerly used largely for artistic purposes, today much greater quantities are used in architecture, especially in high-quality interior fittings and for representative external façades. Hotels and spa facilities, corporate buildings and seats of government, private houses and apartments all feature high-quality Covelano White Marble from South Tyrol, thus guaranteeing the permanent pleasure of the White Gold of the Alps.