Lava cellar (Mendig)

The lava cellars 32 m below Mendig

Ceiling of the lava cellar

The lava cellars in Mendig (local name Mendiger Ley ) are about three square kilometers large rock cellars and the former largest basalt lava mine in the world. They were dug to a depth of 32 m in a cooled lava flow of the Wingertsberg volcano, which erupted 200,000 years ago, in order to mine basalt for millstones . The lava is covered by about 30 m of loess and pumice from the eruption of the Laacher See volcano about 13,000 years ago and has therefore been mined underground since the 18th century.

The temperature-stable tunnels (5-8 ° C) with a humidity of 72% became fermentation and storage cellars for at times 28 breweries after the decline of the millstone industry due to the introduction of steel rollers in the milling industry from 1843 . Because of this high number of breweries, Mendig has the reputation of a beer brewing town to this day . With the invention of cooling technology by Carl von Linde , many of the breweries disappeared again. Today there is only one local brewery that brews for its own restaurant and customers from the region. Some of the former beer cellars are open to visitors. Since many tunnels have already collapsed, many entrances had to be closed. From time to time it happens that streets or properties in Mendig sag through the undercutting. In 1995, the German Vulcanological Society took over the management of the lava cellar by lease - its headquarters are just above it.

Like the neighboring lava dome, the lava cellars belong to the volcano park in the Mayen-Koblenz district. They are designated as a monument zone .

literature

• Wilhelm Meyer and Karl-Heinz Schumacher: Out and about in the volcano park. The Mendig Association. A geological, botanical and cultural historical foray through Mendig, Bell, Rieden, Thür and Volkesfeld. Koblenz 2004, ISBN 3-935690-37-1 .
• Karl-Heinz Schumacher and Wilhelm Meyer: Geopark Vulkanland Eifel. Lava Dome and Lava Cellar in Mendig (= Rhenish Landscapes. Issue 57). Editor: Karl Peter Wiemer. Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection , Cologne 2006.

Web links

Commons : Lavakeller Mendig  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The lava cellars in the Mendig Lava Dome
• The lava cellars in the volcano park
• Video of the lava cellar and the alleged U-relocation "Igel" (Youtube)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wilhelm Meyer: Geology of the Eifel. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-510-65127-8 , p. 400.
2. ^ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - Mayen-Koblenz district. Mainz 2020, p. 58 f. (PDF; 5.8 MB).

Coordinates: 50 ° 22 ′ 41 ″  N , 7 ° 17 ′ 5 ″  E