(Source: http://strana.ru/places/20982340)

Marble deposits in Karelia were discovered in the second half of the XVIII century. In 1768 they were processed in a primitive way, and just in the White Mountain: they undermined the marble beds by small powder charges, separating the blocks of rock.

In 1807, first stone-processing plant was built in Karelia. It consisted of two parts and "acted in water", so that a dam was built on the river for this purpose. The water wheel was driven by 10 saws. In the "Memory trickle of the Olonets province" of 1858 it is said: "The location of Tivdiysky factory and plant is very picturesque”.

They are located on the right bank, where marble is mined, and there is a village of artisans on the sloping left bank. In 1845 the factory burned down. As the marble is required in "significant quantity" – for St. Isaac's Cathedral - a new plant was built but for a hundred saws.

Here in the factory they made marble countertops, fireplaces, marble slabs for floors and tombstones. Upon completion of St.Isaac’s Cathedral the stone production ceased, but it came to life again at the turn of XIX-XX centuries, when finishing the Palace of Alexander III in Massandra. Then finally it stopped.

Belogorsky marble was used very widely: for the Engineers' Castle, for the Marble Palace and Kazan Cathedral. 300 large slabs for window sills of the Winter Palace were produced of this type of marble. Earlier the Karelian marble was used in the design of the Tsaritsyn pavilion and Roman fountains in Peterhof. Surprisingly, but it also has been used for making the pedestal of the monument to Nicholay I and the sarcophagus of Napoleon I.

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