Kolmården marble

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kolmården marble

The Kolmården marble ( Swedish : Kolmårdsmarmor ) is a green Swedish marble from the Kolmården region in the historic province of Östergötland , south of Stockholm . As a decorative stone, it has a special place in the architectural history of Sweden.

Deposit

The deposit consists of narrow and elongated folds of predominantly green mottled marble accompanied by adjacent layers of limestone and amphibolite rocks . These folds trains emphasize in east-west direction parallel to the bay Bråviken and swing east of the lake Svinsjö by almost 180 degrees back to the east. The most famous quarrying site is in Kolmårdens marmorbruk (sometimes just called marble bridge), not far from the shore of the bay. The marble is part of Proterozoic folds in central Sweden.

The quarrying sites in the region follow the almost vertically falling marble layers. This resulted in narrow and elongated ditch quarries, which today are mostly filled with water.

Petrography

A floor detail from Stockholms stadshus (entrance stairs to the tower) shows the range of fluctuations in the texture of the rock

The rock consists of calcite and minerals of the serpentine group . Accessory components are hornblende , pyroxene and minerals of the Oliving group . The composition of the rock varies. Depending on the mineral content, one can also speak of silicate marble or ophicalcite at some mining sites .

The typical expression of this stone consists of its light green color with beige or white spots and a texture with a directional structure, partly ophiolithic (snake-like). The marble can also contain dark green to black deposits.

history

The proximity of the deposit to the shores of Bråviken Bay facilitated the removal of extracted and already processed raw pieces from the beginning of the mining and in this way contributed to a more than 1000 year history of application. The art of stone carving in the Östergötland region is particularly well documented by the old baptismal fonts in some of the region's churches.

Documentary evidence of the dismantling has existed since the 16th century. A historical and hand-drawn map by S. Ryding from 1723 shows the quarry and its surrounding area along with a brief description of the occurrence. It affects a mining privilege from 1722.

During the Baroque and Classicism periods , marble was used as a popular decorative stone in castles of the Swedish royal family and the nobility. It was preferred to use it to manufacture components for stairwells, foyers as well as columns, furniture parts and individual art objects.

Since the middle of the 19th century, the development of the transport system and the improved stone processing technology have significantly increased the national shipping of Kolmården marble. The application examples listed below demonstrate this distribution.

One of the most important historical processing sites was in Erlandstorp, where there was also a mining site. There was also an old marble sawmill and polishing workshop. Other mining sites include Oxåkersbrott and Holmtorpsbrott. The narrow lines of marble in the Kolmården landscape forced it to be extracted from many small quarries with the intensive use of this marble over several centuries.

In 2007 and 2008 interested citizens of the region set up a marble museum in the dilapidated buildings of what was later the main processing site, the marble bridge, which is now closed. At this point, marble was extracted over a period of 700 years until 1978. Currently (2008) the rock is being mined by a quarry in another location in the region.

Applications

Column marble baptismal font from the 13th century (base: Gotland sandstone ) in the Östra Eneby church in Norrköping
Entrance portal made of Kolmården marble at the city tower in Norrköping
Main building of Uppsala University , solid round columns (right)
Main staircase in “Blå hallen” in Stockholms stadshus
Chimney facade in Svindersvik
Portal of the “Tändstickspalatset” in Stockholm

The Kolmården marble came under different names in the trade. These include a. the names Swedish Green , Kolmården OX , Vert Ringborg , Vert de Sibérie and Kolmården Nature . It is mainly used for decorative components, primarily indoors. Due to its unusual color, the marble also found international demand, for example deliveries were made to San Francisco in the middle of the 20th century . Common average sizes of the ingots for shipping were 2.5 × 1.5 × 1 meters.

In Sweden, Kolmården marble was considered a first-class material for all suitable architectural designs and artistic applications. Typical forms of application are wall and floor coverings, stairs, columns, portals, chimney facades, massive decorative components. Furniture cover plates, fountain basins or parts of them as well as historical and modern tomb designs. Utensils such as mortars were also made from this stone.

For the extraction of ashlar unsuitable extraction residues and low-value deposit areas as well as neighboring limestone deposits were used for the production of building lime . Some lime kilns have been built for this purpose.

Application examples

Sweden

Gothenburg

  • University building
  • Stock exchange
  • Skånska Handelsbank building

Helsingborg

  • Skånska Handelsbank building

Landskrona

Linkoping

  • Östergötlands Enskilda Bank building

Malmo

  • Skånes Enskilda Bank building

Norrkoping

  • St. John's Church, modern baptismal font
  • Entrance portal at the Stadstornet / city tower
  • Building of the Norrköping Enskilda Bank
  • Standard hotel

Östra Eneby

  • Church, altar (design: Kurt von Schmalensee, 1955) and old baptismal font

Söderköping

  • St. Laurentii Church, baptismal font from the 14th century

Stockholm and surroundings

Uppsala

  • University , main building, solid columns in the foyer

foreign countries

Germany

Berlin

  • Berlin State Opera , Apollo Hall, floor inlays (foliage) (1832, modernized 1924–1928)
  • Bristol Hotel
  • Victoria Cafe

Hamburg

  • Klosterburg trading house, Glockengießerwall 1 (1903–1904)

France

Paris

Great Britain

Beverley

Glasgow

  • North British Mercantile Insurance Co. building

Leeds

  • University , library, solid columns in the reading room area

London

  • Coliseum Theater (opened in 1904)
  • Shoreditch Townhall (built in 1866, expanded in 1902)
  • Church of St Savior's
  • Hotel Continental (Regent Street)
  • Lyons Popular Café ( Piccadilly )

United States

new York

literature

  • Valter Elgeskog / Bror Asklund: Marble bridge på Kolmården . Norrköping (Norrköpings tidningars aktiebolag) 1955
  • Herman Hedström: Om Sveriges naturliga byggnads- och ornamentstenar . Stockholm (PA Norstedt & Sönner) 1908
  • A. Herbeck: The marble . Munich (Callwey) 1953
  • Olavi Selonen / Veli Suominen: Nordic Stone . Paris, Espoo (UNESCO, IAEG, Geological Survey of Finland) 2003 ISBN 92-3-103899-0
  • JH Schroeder (Ed.): Natural stone in architecture and building history of Berlin . 2nd edition, Berlin (self-published by Geoscientists in Berlin and Brandenburg eV) 2006 ISBN 978-3-928651-12-7

Web links