Aflenz Roman quarry

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Roman quarry Aflenz, entrance

The Aflenz Roman quarry is the oldest mine in Austria that is still active today. The quarry is also known as the Aflenz Roman Cave . It is located in southern Styria near Wagna , between Aflenz an der Sulm and Unterlupitscheni . The Aflenzer Stein (or Aflenzer Cuber ), a good cut stone made of limestone, is mined . The Wagna nature reserve, KG Aflenz ( cave with bat populations ) also exists near the quarry .

history

Roman quarry in Aflenz an der Sulm

Formation of the sand-lime brick

About 15 million years ago, in the Miocene , the Leibnitz field was flooded by a sea that flooded Paratethys . Deposits of calciferous brown algae, corals and fossils were formed. In the course of time it was made of sand-lime brick, which is still mined underground in the Roman quarry today. This Leithakalk of the Badenium , which can be found all over the Murrand of the Windischen Bühel , continues as a reef bank south to the Retznei (Lafarge Perlmoser) quarry (→ see there for details on geology).

The Roman quarry

General plan of the underground mining
Replica of a wagon for transporting stones

In the area settled by the Celts , around 15 BC. Founded a Roman settlement, which was raised to the status of a city by the Roman emperor Vespasian in 70 AD . The city was named Flavia Solva . For example , stone blocks made of Aflenz sand-lime brick were used to build the amphitheater there . The sandstone was mined during the day.

The original dismantling, near-surface chambers, was walled up during World War II and cleared with stone waste.

Middle Ages and early modern times

From the 12th century the stone was used to build churches and castles. Also, the St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, the Graz Castle and the Graz Cottage were, at least partially, built with Aflenzer sandstone.

Because the original entrance had collapsed, a portal was built next to it at the turn of the previous century. At that time, blocks of up to 7 m³ were extracted.

Second World War

Information board of the funeral car . From the time as a concentration camp

During the Second World War in the years 1943–1945, a 'bomb-proof' armaments factory, which produced aircraft and tank engines for the German Wehrmacht, was set up in the “Roman caves”. With great effort, a branch of the Thondorfer Flugzeugwerke Steyr Daimler Puch was relocated to the mountain in a short time . It was the concentration camp Aflenz as external warehouse of Mauthausen established with the occupant have been used for labor. Over 500 people lost their lives in the process.

Halls were built, a pillar structure with a floor area of ​​around 20,000 m², a 12 m span and a height of 6-8 m. During this time, tunnels were also driven over to the Sulmufer (Sulmleite) . These are closed today. The construction and blasting measures of the Second World War permanently damaged the rock in these areas.

After the end of the war, the armaments factory was dismantled. An originally planned demolition of the tunnel system was prevented by the British occupying forces, which recognized the value of the material. Sandstone mining was resumed for the reconstruction of buildings that had been destroyed in the war. The St. Stephen's Cathedral , the Vienna State Opera , the Belvedere Palace in Vienna and the double spiral staircase in Graz Castle were partially restored with Aflenzer sandstone. Then the quarry was shut down.

Resumption of dismantling

In 1988 the disused quarry was acquired by the Stein von Grein company. From this point on, around 200 m³ of sandstone were mined again per year.

A total of 150,000 m³ of stone was removed from the quarry in the course of its 2000-year history. Today the sandstone is only used in small quantities, mainly for renovating historical buildings.

Show mine and event location

Part of the mine is set up as a show mine with a museum and is accessible with guided tours. On the occasion of the state exhibition in 2004, more than 38,000 people visited the Roman cave.

Since 1989 the mine has also been used as a concert and theater hall.

natural reserve

The mine has a good population of bats, small horseshoe bat in the small Lower Roman Quarry , large mouse-eared mouse , small and large horseshoe bat and ciliate bat in the large Roman quarry .

Nature conservation has existed at the lower Roman quarry since 1977. This nature reserve , known as Wagna, KG.Aflenz (long-winged bat colony) or new cave with bat occurrence KG Aflenz ( NSG lit.c 11 ; GZ p. 568/1977), comprises a small area of ​​1470 m² around the old tunnel entrance. The long-winged bat , for which nature conservation was created, has its greatest distribution area in south-east Austria, but has been completely lost in Austria since the end of the 20th century. The sanctuary was retained because of the other bats, and the long-winged bat was omitted from the name.

photos

  • Woman's head, probably made by a slave laborer during the Second World War

  • Memorial to victims

  • Stalactite

  • stage

  • Seckau basilica , chapel of grace, altar table made of Aflenz sandstone (2005)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aflenz Roman Cave. Information page ORF Long Night of Museums 2010 (accessed on October 13, 2010; link no longer available).
  2. ↑ R. Näderl, G. Suette; W. Gräf (project leader), Forschungsgesellschaft Joanneum - Institute for Environmental Geology and Applied Geography: Systematic recording of hard rock deposits in Styria. Final report (unpublished), Graz 1986; Supplement, sheets of Roman quarry Aflenz. ( pdf ; whole work, pdf , there pp. 862–864, supplement from p. 90; both gmld.at).
  3. ↑ Layer name: Leithakalk. Database decorative rocks : Geology and mineral Landesdienst Earth Science Archive Styria (gmld.at; pdf, there especially p. 11).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Alois Hauser, Hans Urregg: The structurally usable rocks of Styria. Issue 4, Part 2 Limes (marl) of modern times and the Middle Ages of the earth. Graz 1950, Retznei - Leithakalkbruch , p. 21 f. (Partly reproduced in Ref. Näderl, Suette 1986).
  5. ↑ Andreas Rohatsch: Procurement of ashlar for the preservation of historical monuments during the reconstruction period after World War II. In: Risen from the rubble. Preservation of monuments 1945 to 1955. = Austrian Journal for Art and Preservation of Monuments, issue 3/4 (2004), p. 476 f ( excerpt from p. 472–476 , on researchgate.net).
  6. ↑ Night owls in hibernation. In: Klipp February 2011 ( eReader , issuu.com).
  7. ↑ Peter Sackl, et al .: Species diversity, population changes and roosting characteristics of bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) in winter roosts in the Grazer Bergland and in the Grazer Bucht (Styria, Austria). In: Mitteilungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Verein für Steiermark Volume 141 (Graz 2011), pp. 99–141, PDF on ZOBODAT
  8. ↑ a b Ordinance of the Leibnitz District Commission of October 31, 1977 on the declaration of the north-western area of ​​property no. 318, KG. Aflenz, in the municipality of Wagna, to the nature reserve. Stf. GZ S. 568/1977 (online, ris.bka)
  9. ↑ In 2011 a breeding colony was discovered again in Klöch in Southeast Styria. "Extinct" bat species rediscovered. science.ORF.at, July 6, 2011.

Coordinates: 46 ° 44 ′ 57 ″  N , 15 ° 32 ′ 58 ″  E