In this paper, an experimental study is reported for the hydrothermal growth of calcite single crystals, CaCO3, using the seeds parallel to pinacoid (0 0 0 1). Morphological stability of the most important faces is considered, and the real structure of these crystals was studied by X-ray topography. Physical properties of the crystals grown are similar to the rhombohedral (1 0 (1) over bar 1) ones, but they have higher optical homogeneity.