Finishes

About Bårarp

Bårarp is situated north of Halmstad in Halland province, and is Sweden’s biggest open-pit quarry for ornamental stone. The material we quarry here is gneiss, which is characterised by a beautifully marbled colour variation. Bårarp has been operating since 1980 and comprises four stone quarries around the same outcrop. This means that the stone differs in structure depending on which of the four it comes from. Moreover, the gneiss from Bårarp has been classed as a Global Heritage Stone Resource by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), in association with UNESCO World Heritage and others. The unique feature of Bårarp gneiss is that the magma which pushed its way up to the earth’s crust when the rock was being formed was heated twice, thus giving the stone its characteristic colour variation. Many old Hanseatic cities in Germany have streets paved with gneiss stones from nearby Bårarp, and it can also be found in churches from as long ago as the 12th century.

Swedish Gneiss Bårarp is a very popular stone with a wide range of applications. The material’s variation can be seen clearly in slabs, for instance on streets and squares in central Linköping.