Does limestone hold up for building a fireplace?

[404]

Thinking about building a wall of limestone and integrating a fireplace into the wall.

Would that work or am I way off track?

 

[alen]

I know that in the past, limestone was burned to make lime mortar, in special lime kilns, where the fuel was wood and oil-rich alum shale. And with this in mind, I think that the strength might suffer with intense heat - but maybe it requires unreasonably high temperatures? If that were the case, you can always line the stove with sturdy refractory bricks.

 

[b8q]

Considering that half of Southern Europe has houses where the structure, including the fireplace and chimney, is made of local limestone, I find it hard to imagine that it would NOT be possible to solve...