Belgian marble is the name given to limestones extracted in Wallonia (southern Belgium). They exhibit nice decorative patterns after polishing.
Belgian marble has been exploited since Roman antiquity

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

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Belgian marbles are mostly deep black, red or greyish. They have enjoyed an international renown since the renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

, and have been used in prestigious European buildings such as the Palace of Versailles

Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....

. The rock is actually not a marble

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 (a metamorphic rock) but a limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 (a calcareous sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....

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Some important Belgian marbles are:

• Rouge Belge
  Rouge Belge
  "Rouge Belge" is a collective noun designating diverse Devonian red limestone varieties found in Wallonia .Some names refer more specifically to the quarry were the material was found like the renowned "Rouge de Rance". Also Rouge Royal is a Belgian red limestone with a specific pattern of white...
  
  : including Rouge de Rance
  Rouge de Rance
  Rouge de Rance is a Devonian red reef limestone from the town of Rance in the province of Hainaut .The red "marble" of Rance in the Belgian province of Hainaut knew a large popularity as a prestigious building material for decorative use...
  
   and Rouge Royal.
• Noir Belge
  Noir Belge
  Noir Belge is collective noun referring to black limestone found on several sites in Belgium. Some trade names refer more specifically to the quarry were the material was found, for example "Noir de Mazy" or "Noir de Golzinne"...
  
  : including Noir de Golzinne
  Noir de Golzinne
  Noir de Golzinne is the only Belgian black limestone that is still exploited today. It is named after the quarry in the Belgian hamlet of Golzinne near Gembloux in the Walloon Region. "Noir de Golzinne" is also the trade name of the geological vein that is currently exploited in nearby Mazy...
  
   and Noir de Masy.