(Miquel Ramis)

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Catalá	Castellano	Français	Italiano	English	Deutsch
Escultor, imaginer	Escultor	Esculpteur		Sculptor
Picapedrer	Cantero	Le tailleur des pierres	Scalpellino	the stonemason, stone cutter	der Steinhauer, der Steinmetz

Nederlands (Dutch) steenhouwer

Portugues: Canteiro

Svenska (Swedish) n. - stenmurare, stenhuggare

Dansk (Danish) n. - stenhugger, murer

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The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of civilization - creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artifacts, cathedrals, and cities in a wide variety of cultures. One of the most famous stonemasons is the famous artist, sculptor, and architect, Michelangelo. The awe-inspiring products of stonemasonry include the Easter Island statues, the Egyptian Pyramids, the Iranian Persepolis, the Greek Parthenon, Stonehenge, and Chartres Cathedral.

Definition

Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping rough pieces of rock into accurate geometrical shapes, mostly simple, but some of considerable complexity, and then arranging the resulting stones, often together with mortar, to form structures.

* Quarrymen split the rock, and extract the resulting blocks of stone from the ground.
* Sawyers cut these rough blocks into rectangles of the required size.
* Banker masons are workshop based, and specialise in carving stones into the geometrical shapes required by a building's design. They can produce anything from stones with simple chamfers to tracery windows.
* Carvers cross the line from craft to art, and use their artistic ability to carve stone into foliage, figures, animals or abstract designs.
* Fixer masons specialise in the fixing of stones onto buildings, using lifting tackle, mortar, and sometimes metal fixings. The precise tolerances necessary make this a highly skilled job.
* Memorial masons carve gravestones and inscriptions.