Leithakalk
The Leithakalk is a limestone that is named after the Leithagebirge in eastern Austria . These are rock deposits that were of great cultural and historical importance , especially for Vienna, from the Renaissance and Baroque periods to historicism.
geology
The Leithakalke are tertiary marine sediments of Paratethys -Meeres in the east and south Alpenvorland that from the time of Badenian (the local time stage that the Langhian of Miozän originate corresponds), and around 16 to 13 million years old. During this time the Paratethys withdrew after an interim transgression (peak) north of the Alps; at the end of the Badenium it was transformed into a brackish lake. This means that the Leitha limestone is much younger than the typical Triassic (around 250–200 million years old) Alpine limestone that was deposited in the Tethys (ocean) long before the Alps began to unfold . They come from the end of the main phase of the Alpid orogeny , when the young Alps and Dinarides had already divided the western Thetys into the Mediterranean and Paratethys.
The limestone of the transgression phase, the Eggenburgian , Ottnangian and Carpathian (corresponds to the Burdigalium ), which are up to 20 million years old, are also counted among the Leithakalken, other authors reject this.
Rock description
The term is used comparatively unspecifically in relation to the temporal and spatial formation phase, and includes both reef limestone , algae limestone and sand-lime bricks .
Leitha limestone , which consists mainly of skeletal fragments of calciferous red algae , is a light, solid, cellular limestone. Pelitic (very fine-grained, silty) layers can be interposed. The Leithakalk from St. Margarethen is slightly brownish, a sand-lime brick and very porous. The light, ocher-colored Loretto limestone can be distinguished by the point-like, dark speckles, in the Eggenburger Stein (Zogelsdorfer Formation) , a pure white sand-lime brick, there are tons of bog animals and other fossils as well as quartz , muscovite and feldspar . The Retzneier reef limestone bank is rich in larger fossils.
Occurrences and quarries
Leithakalk occurs at the edges of the Vienna and Graz basins . The Leitha Mountains themselves consist of gneiss and mica schist , with the Leitha limestone on top.
Burgenland
In Burgenland , Leithakalk was produced as hard to very hard Kaiserstein in Kaisersteinbruch , as easily malleable Breitenbrunn sculptural stone in Breitenbrunn , Lorettokalk in Loretto , and is still mined today as St. Margarethener sand-lime stone in St. Margarethen for the production of stone. In Müllendorf , chalk is produced from Leithakalk.
Lower Austria
In Mannersdorf in Lower Austria , the Leithakalk is also broken for cement production . Further limestone can be found in the Eggenburg area in the western Weinviertel ( Eggenburger / Zogelsdorfer Stein ) .
Styria
In Styria there are Leitha limestone quarries in Aflenz near Leibnitz, in Wildon , and earlier also in Totterfeld near Hartberg. In Retznei will cement burned (Lafarge Perlmoser).
Historical use as a building and picture building block
The Leithakalk is an easy-to-work natural stone , it is easy to profile and is often used by stonemasons and stone sculptors because of its good, sometimes marble-like malleability .
There is evidence that the Eggenburg stone was already quarried as a stone in the Bronze Age . The lime of the Leithagebirge was already a coveted building block in Roman times. An example of its use is the Roman villa at Königshof-Ödes Kloster .
In the Renaissance and Baroque periods, this stone was skillfully worked by Italian-Swiss masters in the Imperial Quarry on Leythaberg . This resulted in competition with the Austrian stonemason and stone sculptor, so no Italian stonemason was allowed to work on the Gothic St. Stephen's Cathedral.
This stone was used in many buildings, in Graz for example the castle on Grazer Schloßberg , the Old Joanneum and the Landhaus , in Vienna for example St. Stephen's Cathedral . In the 19th century, the construction of Vienna's Ringstrasse resulted in large orders for all (up to 150) quarries in the Leitha Mountains.
Since Leithakalk is carbonatically bound, it is particularly exposed to weathering processes due to the currently prevailing acidic environmental influences .
Baroque stairs in the Prälatenhof from Kaiserstein , marble-like
The group of figures of the Liberation-of-the-Source-Fountain in Vienna was created by Josef Heu from Leithakalk
Margarethener stone as a finial , stone pattern in the Kaisersteinbruch Steinmetzmuseum
Web links
- August Hanisch, Heinrich Schmid: Austria's quarries. Directory of the quarries that deliver cuboids, steps, paving stones, grindstones and millstones or roof slabs. Graeser, Vienna 1901. (Online at ALO ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Entry on Leithakalk in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
- ↑ a b c d e Universalmuseum Joanneum : Leithakalk. ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Folder (pdf, museum-joanneum.at) - to the Lafarge plant in Retznei, with a map of the Paratethys west coast 16 million years ago (turn Kartpat – Baden).
- ↑ a b c Leithakalk. In mineralienatlas.de.
- ↑ Federal Geological Institute : Molasse Zone & Neogen Basin . ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Rocky Austria (geologie.ac.at).
- ^ Carl Friedrich Zincken : The physiography of brown coal ; Hanover 1867
- ↑ Helmuth Furch 2002, Historisches Lexikon Kaisersteinbruch Volume 1 , 2004, Volume 2
- ↑ Julius Georg Friebe: Lithostratigraphic restructuring and sedimentology of the Badenian (Miocene) deposits around the Central Styrian threshold (Styrian Basin, Austria). In: Jahrbuch der Geologische Bundesanstalt Volume 133 / Issue 2, 1990, chap. 6.3. The Leithakalk deposits of the Central Styrian threshold , p. 236 ff ( full article, p. 223–255, pdf , geologie.ac.at; there p. 14 ff).
- ↑ Layer name: Leithakalk. Database decorative rocks , geology and mineral Landesdienst: Earth Science Archive Styria (gmld.at; pdf).
- ^ Alois Kieslinger : Leithakalke from the Vienna Basin for buildings up to 1600 in Vienna. In: Restauratorenblätter 1979 ( pdf ( 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 note. , On baufachinformation.de).
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↑ Alois Kieslinger: The stones of St. Stephan. Herold Verlag, Vienna 1949.
Andreas Rohatsch : The rocks in the structure of the giant gate of St. Stephan, geological characterization and technical properties. In: Friedrich Dahm (Ed.): The Vienna St. Stephen's Cathedral, research and materials. The giant gate. Austrian Academy of Sciences , Federal Monuments Office . Vienna 2008, pp. 77-89. - ↑ Alois Kieslinger: The stones of the Vienna Ringstrasse. Wiesbaden 1972.
