This excursion consists in a visit to the “porfido” capital. Direction Trento Gardolo. Once you reach the centre you can park in the vicinity of the church of San Biagio, this is an ancient building (dating back to 1149) renovated in the fifteenth century. To visit inside you have to ask at the city hall. With the car you can proceed to the end of the built up area where a vast car park can be found on the right in front of the “Consorzio dei produttori del porfido”. In the vicinity, there is the church of Sant Antonio with its portico (seventeenth century). From here one can enjoy a spectacular view of the Cembra valley up to the Dolomiti di Fiemme from the North, on the West the Dolimiti del Brenta. The road which leads to the Lago di S. Colomba starts in front of the car park, the lake is about 4 km down this road. Along this road one can see the porphyry quarry operations of Mount Gaggio. The Lago di S.Colomba is a delightful little lake situated in the woods (370 meters long, 150 meters wide and 9 meters deep to be found at 955 meters above sea level), close to a fresh water source.
Porphyry: Material in strata of various thicknesses has been extracted in Albiano, Lases, Fornace and San Mauro since the 18th century when the stone extracted was used to cover roofs of houses. The processed material can be found in cubes, regular and irregular slabs, polished stones which were used to decorate the historical center and also to build houses for private residence. Since the sixties, this activity has become a fully fletched industry. There are about 80 companies which export all over the world, employing about 2000 people.