Millstone quarries (Zittau Mountains)
The millstone quarries south of Jonsdorf in the Zittau Mountains in Saxony are an area of bizarre rock formations, which were created through the extraction of sandstone for the extraction of millstones and through weathering processes. They are considered a popular hiking and climbing area. A nature trail leads through the approx. 35 hectare area .
Location and surroundings
The millstone quarries are located south of Jonsdorf at an altitude of 480 to 560 meters. The Jonsdorfer Felsenstadt connects to the southwest . The border with the Czech Republic runs about 600 meters south .
geology
The sandstone stored in the area of the millstone quarries was created in the geological age of the Middle Turon and its origin belongs to the Bohemian Chalk Basin . It is characterized by some special features. The sandstone formed by sedimentation is broken through several times by basaltic and phonolithic intrusions due to contact with phenomena of tertiary volcanism in northern Bohemia . Often the rock was exposed to thermal changes (contact with magma and hydrothermal solutions), which led to rock fritting (a melting of mineral grains at their grain boundaries). The sandstone retained its porosity, increased its strength in the grain structure and thus its abrasion resistance.
The area of the millstone quarries has a further geological peculiarity, a columnar sandstone. The best-known formation is the large and small organs , which can easily be confused with columnar basalt . The columnar shapes, which are completely atypical for sandstone, have a diameter of up to 15 centimeters and are vertically bundled on a solid, uncolumnar block of sandstone. They are created by thermal processes when they come into contact with magma . In 1852 Alexander von Humboldt sent a painter and two geologists here to study this phenomenon.
history
The usability of the sandstone in the Zittau Mountains for the production of millstones is documented as early as the 16th century. The Jonsdorf millstone quarries were one of more than 40 mining sites in the vicinity. The quarry in Jonsdorf began in 1560. The sandstone was mined for over 350 years and processed into millstones with a diameter of up to 2.70 meters. At first the millstones were cut from one piece, from around 1850 onwards millstones were put together from several pieces. Sufficiently large and homogeneous sandstone blanks could no longer be mined. Production was maintained until 1918. The main buyers were customers in Russia and England . There were separate branches for the millstone trade in Moscow and Saint Petersburg .
In the 1950s, friends of nature and homeland created a nature trail . From 1990 the renovation of quarries began to make them accessible. In 2002 a show workshop was set up in the black hole . Today the millstone quarries are one of the main attractions in the Zittau Mountains.
Attractions
- Three tables , kidney-shaped sandstone formation marked by iron oxide precipitates
- Mousetrap , a rock formation created by a rock fall in 1908
- Old quarry forge
- Bärloch old quarry
- Old White Rock Quarry
- Liquor warehouse
- Old Black Hole quarry with a demonstration workshop and tunnel
- slide
- Humboldt rock, a 7 meter high basalt stem remnant in the Black Quarry
- Old quarry cellar quarry
- Rhino and St. Bernard rock formations
- Big and small organ
- Rock formation lion
literature
- Andreas Gerth: Geological excursions in Upper Lusatia and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains . Oberlausitzer Verlag Spitzkunnersdorf 2006; ISBN 3-933827-59-0
- Gerald Bost: Millstones from Jonsdorf , International Molinologoy, 2002, 64: 30-32 (English)
- Gerald Bost: The millstone quarries of Jonsdorf , Der Mühlstein Jhrg. 4/2001
- Meyer's nature guide Upper Lusatia . Meyers Lexikonverlag Mannheim / Leipzig / Vienna / Zurich; ISBN 3-411-07161-3
- The south-eastern Upper Lusatia with Zittau and the Zittau Mountains (= values of the German homeland . Volume 16). 2nd Edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1971, pp. 207–208.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 50 ′ 44.9 " N , 14 ° 41 ′ 41.6" E