The town of Seravezza stands at the foot of the Apuan Alps in the Province of Lucca, Tuscany. The town's economy is primarily based on the quarrying, working, distributing and selling of marble, thanks to the abundant mineral deposits and renowned quarries in the territory.
The profitable activities of quarrying and working the marble found in the mountains nearby first began in the '500 and were already consolidated by the second half of the century when Seravezza was placed under the control of Florence. This was the period in which many sculptors came to the area in search of the so-called "statuary marble", among which the famous Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), who also ordered the laying of a road entirely in marble itself that linked the quarries to the seacoast during his 3-year stay.
Florentine domination continued until the start of the 1700s, when the Grand Dukes of Medici were succeeded by the Dukes of Lorraine. In that period, marble working activities were temporarily suspended until they resumed with new impetus at the start of the 1800s when the first marble and marble by-product industries were established.
Since 1991, Seravezza has been the main entrance to the Apuan Alps Natural Park established in 1985 to defend the mountains and to control quarrying in the Provinces of Lucca and Massa-Carrara.