Value: 23.169.000 €

Years of Construction: 2016 – 2019

Material: Installation service and material supply of Thassos marble cladding, artifacts, columns for the interior and exterior, arches with colored granite inlays.

Total Quantity: 36.000 Tons

Interior and exterior cladding with white THASSOS marble of the new religious center in the town of Shali in the Chechen Republic of Russia. The project, which implemented marble supply, marble consultation and installation work, started in 2016 and has been completed in July 2019. This Mosque, which is designed with traditional Uzbek rhythm with many spindles and columns (all elaborated in white marble), is to become the major attraction in the very center of Shali town in Chechnya and will be among the biggest in Europe with a projected capacity of up to 20,000 worshipers. The marble which is completely white and can be found only in the small island Thassos in Greece and had been selected out of its extra white color and sparkling nature. The additional very high reflection to sunlight this marble provides, is an additional feature that is valuable especially for warm regions. The rareness and supply of this raw material was an additional challenge in the time frame given. All the white marble pieces of the cladding had a thickness of 3cm and above and had been dry installed with profiles. Colored granite/onyx/marble inlays showing flowers and eastward symbols in the arches of the interior and exterior, created an additional emphasis and contrast to the overall white mosque. Massive spindle columns, elaborated artifacts, column capitals and balustrades added a massive weight during the installation handling. Given the enormous height (the minarets have a height of 63,3m/each) and weight of the marble pieces – delicate in elaboration details -, that had to be fabricated, transported 2,000 km by road and seaway and fixed, constituted the entire project an overall challenge. All artistic elaborations have been done by state of the art machinery and were finished by hand. Careful stone consultation was implemented in-house by our design team and gave the opportunity to deliver adjustments in the production process, wherever needed.

This project was awarded with the PINNACLE AWARD OF EXCELLENCE 2019 presented by the NATURAL STONE INSTITUTE in the category Architectural Carving / Lettering / Sculpture.