Visit to Cuellar Stone Factory in Almeria

The Baltic Stone team visited Almeria region of Spain, where Cuellar Stone factory has been working since 1958. Almeria is famous for its stone quarries, and is home to a number of stone working companies. Large quantities of rough granite, marble, travertine and quartzite blocks are brought to the Cuellar Stone premises in Cantoria. These massive lumps of stone need powerful machinery to transport them from the quarries and special equipment to cut them. At Cuellar Stone, rock cutting machines with diamond wires slice marble blocks into slabs as easily as the knife cuts cheese.

During the first processing cycle, the square blocks are skilfully cut into 2, 3, 4 cm thick slabs. They are then used to make worktops, facades, wall and floor cladding. The slabs are either polished to give the surface high gloss, or brushed, fired, aged using special techniques.

Cuellar Stone's professional craftsmen are like master sculptors. They know how to give stone products most original shapes and carve fine reliefs. For example, this stone worker spent the whole day sculpting a huge marble flower pot by hand.  

Cuellar Stone craftsmen make hundreds and thousands of such indoor and outdoor decorations each year. Clients can order a bathtub carved from a single block of stone, sinks and washbasins in a variety of shapes. Shower trays, tables, chairs and benches from stone are also made here. 

The Cuellar Stone factory buildings and warehouses are spread over 35 thousand square meters of land. Approximately 6,000 cubic meters of stone blocks are cut here each year. The offices and showrooms alone account for almost 2 000 square metres, although you wouldn't know it from looking at the main building from the street - it looks like a small, pretty castle. 

In collaboration with Spanish research centres and universities, Cuellar Stone's specialists have developed a range of stone care products and techniques for treatment and maintenance of each type of stone. Their use depends on the requirements of the project and the optimum effect desired. 

Diego Martínez Cano, the CEO and owner of Cuellar Stone, was delighted to meet the Lithuanians and shared friendly memories of Klaipėda. He used to watch basketball games in that Lithuanian city a decade ago. Is it worth adding that everyone in Spain knows Arvydas Sabonis? Maybe that's why the door opened wide for us, even though we didn't make any prior arrangements.

Below is a video of the Cuellar Stone factory located in the town of Cantoria, in the Almeria region of Spain.