ABSTRACT
The province of Pavia occupies the southern part of Lombardy featuring hills (Apennines) and alluvial plains (Pianura Padana). In these hills emerges the Arenaria dell’Appennino Pavese (“Arenarie di Monte Arzolo” formation, Miocene), including lenticular beds of clast supported alluvial conglomerate with sandy matrix, sandy lenses and massive badly cemented conglomerate. Quarries were located in the area of Santa Giuletta, some kilometres south of Pavia, between the villages of Casteggio and Broni. Its use was exclusively local in the territory of the province of Pavia, because of conspicuous forms of decay, as erosion and crumbling with complete loss of the outward form, sulphate skin formation. The most important buildings made of this sandstone are some Romanesque churches: Santa Maria in Betlem, San Michele, San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro (11th-12th centuries).
