Granite

As early as the sixteenth century, Vosgian farmers carved the granite rocks they found in their fields to make rubble for their houses and to border their plot of land. In the nineteenth century, these farmers became farmers-cum-quarry-and-granite-workers. On the high Bressan Region, they bred a few cows, processed the milk into cheeses and worked the stones. Towards 1930, near the Col de Grosse Pierre, more than 50 quarries were thus exploited by a hundred men and in each workshop, 1 to 8 granite workers carved the gravestones. Today, despite imports, the usage of Vosgian granite develops and evolves: mortuary, sidewalk edges, cobblestones, architecture, street furniture, professional equipment, home furnishing, decoration, objects… a dozen craft businesses propose high-quality products. They are located on the southern Vosges Mountain side.