The patron saint of Carrara is Saint Ceccardus, bishop and martyr, celebrated on 16 June: both a church in the locality of San Ceccardo-Fabbrica and an oratory of uncertain date, built on the presumed site of his martyrdom, are dedicated to him.
Carrara is an internationally important hub for the extraction, processing and trade of marble, known worldwide as Carrara marble and quarried from the nearby Apuan Alps since ancient times: the original settlement probably arose precisely to house the workers employed in the quarrying activity. In Piazza del Duomo, the heart of the old town, stands to this day the house where Michelangelo Buonarroti stayed, adjacent to the apse of the Romanesque-Gothic cathedral. Palazzo Cybo Malaspina, turned into an Academy of Fine Arts as early as 1806 during the Napoleonic occupation, still houses one of the oldest art academies in Italy and Europe, founded in 1769 at the will of Maria Teresa d'Este. Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries Carrara also became the cradle of Italian anarchism, especially among the quarry workers, who were protagonists of the Lunigiana uprising of January 1894.
