Overall, travertine is a versatile and attractive natural stone that mixes classic style with rustic variety and movement. Travertine offers warm and inviting movements of colors and tones throughout.
It works great as the centerpiece to your design scheme and can also serve as a great accent to other tile families such as slate, granite and marble tiles. Increasingly more popular for kitchens, baths, showers, and countertops.
Travertine deposits are primarily found in Tivoli, Italy.
Ancient Romans mined the region of Tivoli, then known as Tibur, and the stone was called lapis tiburtinus or tibur stone. Over time the name was altered to travertine. Italy monopolized the travertine market up until about 10 years ago, now travertine is exported from deposits in Afghanistan, Turkey, Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru.
Travertine has been utilized in home construction since the middle ages, but the most famous edifice ever to be constructed almost entirely from travertine is the Roman Coliseum.
The Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Paris, the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the lobby of the Willis Tower in Chicago, the first floor of the UCLA Medical Center (designed by the famous architect Welton Becket who uses travertine wall tiles in nearly all his designs)are examples of the extensive use of travertine in modern construction.
