The region

The Dark Emperador is extracted in the area around the town of Yecla, which is located in the region of Murcia – southeast of Spain. Yecla is an area of transition between the Levante and the Meseta areas, and has been considered throughout history as a place for the convergence of cultures.

Yecla´s agricultural and cattle-hearding resources, as well as its privileged geographical location, have been essential factors for its human and economic development throughout the times.


Yecla´s economy has been traditionally based on the production of grains, but also on the production of excellent wine, olive oil, fruits and other agricultural products. Since the second half of the 20th century that the furniture industry has become a major sector in the local economy. Today, wine making and furniture have made its reputation. It is important to mention the natural stone industry, with the extraction and transformation in the nearby quarries of the world renowned Dark Emperador marble, a reference stone in the international market.

The marble

The Dark Emperador marble is explored by several companies around the town of Yecla, with different exploration centres around Yecla, but also around the nearby towns of Caudete (Albacete province) and Jumilla (Murcia region). There are currently around ten quarries extracting the Dark Emperador marble. They are very large, with wide exploration fronts and extracting blocks with large dimension. It is estimated that there are large reserves of this marble for future exploration.

Just as the Crema Marfil, the Dark Emperador is a famours and internationally recognized Spanish natural stone. Despite competing directly with several similar stones, the Dark Emperador enjoys a comfortable and high market demand throughout the World. It is a popular marble for many years and its market implementation is mature in most of the markets. It is definitely one of the reference Spanish natural stones!

Overall analysis

The Dark Emperador is a very elegant, sophisticated and charming stone. This partially explains the reputation and recognition that it has gained in the past years. But it is also a stone with a bright colour, where its pure and deep dark colours have been quite appreciated by arquitects and decorators. In addition, it has been implemented in the market for years, where its high demand has been perfectly met by large and productive quarries.

As we believe there is no perfect natural stone, the Dark Emperador marble has also some less interesting points. To begin with, it is common to find slabs that may present some weaker parts that can easily break. This can be solved with simple technical solutions, but it will make the whole production more expensive. In addition, the blocks may contain harder parts of stones on the inside, which can break and damage sawing blades.