El Faro de Vigo echoes our news published on facebook in which we comment on the elaboration of a world in granite. We leave here the words of José Carneiro, who wrote the article:
Granilouro, with the help of the craftsman Paco Candán, sculpts a globe of 1.5 metres in diameter and 5.7 tons for a square in Frankfurt.
A black granite “world” made in Porriño has become the protagonist of a popular square in Germany. The company Granitos del Louro (Granilouro), with the finishing touch of local craftsman Paco Candán, has created an imposing globe 1.5 metres in diameter and weighing 5,700 kilograms to decorate a well-known square in the German city of Frankfurt, the company told FARO. This granite world is an example of the unique projects built with granite in Galicia – the fifth world power in the sector – and which are exported to countries all over the world.
The stony earth globe of Porriño
For this particular work, which has taken a long manufacturing process and was completed by Paco Candán – who has outlined the contours of the continents by lowering the rest of the sphere with bush-hammering – Granilouro has opted for a block of Black Angola granite – imported from this African country – which has been milled and polished until the darkest possible shade of stone has been achieved. In total, the work required more than 500 hours of work between wire machine, lathe and polishing, as well as a very meticulous preliminary work and the setting out of the five continents on the globe.
The final sphere, 1.5 metres in diameter and weighing 5.7 tonnes (including the packaging for transport from Porriño to Frankfurt), is a detailed work of art that crowns a central square in Frankfurt, Germany. Other unique works by Granilouro include a sculptural block for the European School in Strasbourg or the Town Hall Square in Hannover. These projects demonstrate the quality of the Galician granite companies, capable of giving an artistic touch to such a Galician building material as granite. Granilouro was set up in the 1980s and has its facilities on the road to Salceda, in Porriño.
Fifth world power
Galicia -more precisely, the mining area of Porriño- can boast, after the economic crisis, of remaining the fifth world power in granite, behind China, India, Brazil and Italy, and in Vigo alone this sector represents 15% of the total.
