Μake us preferred on Google There are difficult things to move, and then there is a 500 ton sculpture carved from a single piece of marble, six meters wide and six meters high, sitting in a quarry in the mountains of Naxos. On Wednesday night, if all goes according to plan, that sculpture is expected to begin inching its way onto the island’s public roads.
The work, called the “Lyra of Naxos,” is by the sculptor Tobias Ballaty and measures 12 meters long, six meters wide and six meters high. Its destination is Basel, Switzerland. Getting it there, however, requires first solving the rather more immediate problem of getting it from a quarry in Kinidaros to the port of Naxos. The operation was first reported exclusively by the local news site NaxosTimes, which has published photographs, video and details of the preparations.
The sculpture began as a block of Naxos marble measuring 17 by 7 by 7 meters, according to Viktoras Matarangas, a member of the quarry’s management who spoke to NaxosTimes. The broader project began about three years ago, while Ballaty has spent more than six months working on the marble at the quarry.
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Its basic form is now complete. The next phase is transportation.
Source: Naxos Times
That will take place over three nights, according to Joachim Kolb, a sales manager for Cometto Italy who is on Naxos for the operation. The plan is for the sculpture to reach the port in time for a specially arranged ship expected on Saturday.
The machinery brought in for the job is nearly as unusual as its cargo. A 12 axle Cometto self propelled modular transporter, a large platform used for moving extremely heavy loads, has been shipped to Naxos specifically for the operation. Its electronic steering system allows it to maneuver through turns with unusual precision, something that will be essential on the route to the port.
Engineers have spent days checking the roads the sculpture is expected to travel, while organizers are coordinating with police to clear the way. There is also a more mundane obstacle: parked cars.
The operation has invited comparison with another enormous piece of Naxian marble, one however that never made it very far. Near Apollonas, in the north of the island, an unfinished kouros from the sixth century B.C. still lies in the ancient quarry where it was carved. Kolb told NaxosTimes that the figure is 10.7 meters long and weighs about 80 tons. Its size, he said, appears to have defeated the transport methods available at the time.
The new sculpture is several times heavier. The difference is that, 2,600 years later, there is now machinery built for the problem. “We are much better equipped today than people were in antiquity,” Kolb wrote.
By Saturday, if the route to the port goes as planned, Naxos may finally have managed what its ancient quarrymen could not: sending one of its marble giants on its way.
With information from Naxos Times
