Stonework is dealing with stone processing by sculpting, grinding, stroking, engraving, painting, and installing stone elements. Hammers, wedges, billets and chisels were used for the manual stonework. Since the stonemasons also originally mined the stone, local deposits determined the type of stone being processed, e.g. in Spis region, stonemasons focused on processing travertine since the middle age. Stonework has been developed by Italian masters who have come to build secular and sacral buildings since the 13th century in Slovakia.

 

In addition to building stonework, the production of mill stones and grinding stones was also developed. In the cities, the stonemasons had guilds along with masons and focused on building various types of buildings. In the countryside, stonemasonry as a supplementary occupation has been developing since the 18th century in areas where stone is more easily processed (sandstone, limestone, rhyolite, trachyt). Linings, window sills, cornices, ribbon works, pillars, tombstones, crosses and statues, calvarias, wayside shrines and secular statues were made from this material. Although the traditional stonemasonry has disappeared at the end of the 1940s, it remained as a craft until today. Stone is still widely used in construction, both in exteriors and interiors, tombstones and artworks are made of it.