Engelsberg marble
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The Engelsberg marble is a reddish limestone that is found in a narrowly limited area on Engelsberg in Winzendorf in the market town of Winzendorf-Muthmannsdorf at an altitude of 510 m above sea level. A. occurs.
description
The Engelsberg marble is also known as Helenen marble . The so-called Engelsberg marble , which is a limestone, has a characteristic cherry-red to flesh-red color and shows white veins. Its almost unique color scheme made it a sought-after material, especially for presentation buildings.
The geologists Friedrich Brix and Benno Plöchinger describe the rock as follows: “The colorful Upper Triadic Hallstatt limestone of the Engelsberg, Moosbühel and Brunner plains, which is embedded in large pockets and niches of the wall reef limestone , corresponds facially (= different formation of rock layers of the same age ) a Hallstatt red limestone of the same age from the Salzkammergut (Monotiskalk). Apart from the broken SW boundary at the Engelsberg quarry, it is difficult to define the Hallstatt limestone deposits because of the infiltration of Hallstatt sediment in the wall reef limestone. "
history
The oldest known record of the mining of Engelsberg marble can be found in a lease agreement between the Starhemberg rulers and the Wiener Neustadt master stonemason Paul Klimpfinger, which dates from 1698. In 1733 the lease with a master stonemason, Matthäus Lang, was extended. Despite its almost unique characteristics, mining was only carried out on a small scale.
After the Second World War , commercial mining ceased entirely. While in the past no strict standards were applied and the use of Engelsberg marble was therefore widely spread, the low compressive strength of only 695 to 1400 kg / cm no longer meets today's requirements.
The origin of the name is not clear. While one theory derives the name from the “mountain of an angel”, the other theory traces the origin of the name from the word “grandchildren”. Mythologists are of the opinion that the topographical term “angel” is derived from the old high German “eninkel” due to the sound shift, and that means something like “grandchildren”.
use
In addition to its use in the regional area, magnificent Viennese buildings were also equipped with Engelsberg marble. In 1718 it was used to design St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna . A baroque door garment for the upper sacristy as well as columns and paneling on side altars were erected. In 1769 the Engelsberg supplied six large columns for the high altar of Wiener Neustadt Cathedral and others for the Neuklosterkirche in Wiener Neustadt. Deliveries of further pillars go to Graz . What was remarkable was the size of the pieces that could be made by hand at the time.
The Engelsberg experienced a boom under the Viennese court stone mason Andrea Francini during the early days . Between 1860 and 1901, Francini carried out the most intensive dismantling, including the 272 balusters of the grand staircase and bases for busts on the first floor of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna , the grand staircase of Francini's private house at Argentinierstraße 42 in Vienna, and the columns and wall panels of the Vienna Südbahnhof were made with marble from Winzendorf. The counter hall at Graz main train station was also designed with Engelsberg marble. However, Francini caused lasting damage to the Engelsberg marble quarry by attempting to make mining more economical by means of a large "chamber mine blast". As a result of this completely unsuccessful measure, the fissures of the already heavily tectonically pressed ("prickly") stone were torn to such an extent that healthy large blocks could hardly be mined.
After the First World War , the blocks Francini left behind were sold to Germany in 1919. In 1940 the Imperial German “Naturstein und Marmorwerke Offenau” resumed operations on Engelsberg, building a 2.5 km long driveway from Muthmannsdorf to develop the quarry and installing a motorized wire saw.
During the Second World War , Engelsberg marble was brought to Nuremberg and unfinished objects on the Nazi party rally grounds were clad with it. In addition, broken marble is used to build Reichsautobahnbrücken. Since 1945 he has covered the base of the monument to the liberation from fascist rule erected at the instigation of the Soviet power - popularly known as the " Russian Monument " - on Schwarzenbergplatz in Vienna. As an inscription on a cistern near the quarry shows, Italian workers were also employed on Engelsberg during the war years. After work was suspended from 1943 due to the war, the quarry, which had been declared "German property", was incorporated into the USIA group, which was supervised by the Soviets, and around 600 m³ of stored rough blocks were subsequently transported away.
However, the Engelsberg marble turned out to be less resistant to today's air pollution. That is why it was replaced by granite at the Russian monument around 1980. The city of Nuremberg has to spend considerable resources on an ongoing basis to preserve the prestige object of the Nazi party rally grounds, which has been a listed building since 1973.
The last use dates from 1989, when the floor of the parish church St. Peter im Moos in the Winzendorf district of Muthmannsdorf was decorated with local marble.
present
Today the Engelsberg marble is only used at sculpture symposia.
In 1997 and 1998 the quarry was freed from wild growth, excavated down to the rocky subsoil, geodetically measured and provided with information boards. On June 7, 1998, it was ceremoniously presented to the public as a " geotope " and technical monument. It has thus become a popular destination.
literature
- Wilhelm J. Wagner : Hohe Wand-Steinfeld, culture and history. Self-published by the Schneebergbahn Association, Hohe Wand, Steinfeld, Bad Fischau-Brunn , 1999.
- Erwin Reidinger : Geotope marble quarry Engelsberg in Winzendorf-Muthmannsdorf. In: Our home. Journal for Regional Studies of Lower Austria, 1/1999, 27–31.
Web links
- Figure by Engelsberg marble
- Winzendorf-Muthmannsdorf community: Engelsberger Geotop
Individual evidence
- ↑ Explanations of the geological map Wiener Neustadt ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 4.8 MB) 1988, accessed on March 17, 2012.
Coordinates: 47 ° 48 ′ 52 " N , 16 ° 6 ′ 38.4" E