Travertine is polymineralic mountain rock created as a result of precipitation of calcium carbonate under the influence of carbonic water springs. This construction and decorative material has a temperate porous structure and specific fibrous pattern. Travertine is one of the most commonly used stones in modernist architecture. 

In Uzhhorod we may see Slovak travertine from Bešeňov – the so-called ‘golden Bešeňov travertine’. At the interwar period, material from this deposit was used not only for decoration of cult modernist objects on the territory of Czechoslovakia such as Villa Müller in Prague designed by Adolf Loos, or Villa Tugendhat in Brno designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe which is a UNESCO object today.

Bešeňov travertine was exported to France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, etc. This luxury material can also be found at other continents – it is used in decoration of luxurious hall of skyscraper at 20 Exchange Place, Manhattan, which was the fourth among the highest building in New York at the time of its construction end in 1931.