Water availability in built environment, including heritage, plays a fundamental role in microbial colonization and subsequent biodeterioration. However, it is uncertain about the relationship between specific water characteristics and microbial development. Here, we applied water intrusion gravimetry (WIG) to quantify water distribution and then linked it to microbial growth by combining molecular biology techniques and petrophysical and mineralogical analyses. Porosity as well as capillary, gravitational, and saturation waters were distinctly increased in the monument stones compared to the adjacent quarry fresh sandstone. Archaea and bacteria, responsible for ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and Comammox species were enriched with increasing capillary water mainly, and intriguingly, the copies of bacterial 16S rRNA and Comammox amoA genes were positively correlated with capillary water significantly (r