Roman quarry St. Margarethen
The Roman quarry Sankt Margarethen is one of the oldest still active stone quarries in Austria and is located in the municipality of Sankt Margarethen in Burgenland . It is located in a flat landscape near Lake Neusiedl .
Quarry
From this quarry comes the St. Margarethen sand-lime brick , which was used in the construction of Carnuntum as early as 2000 years ago and gained national importance from the 16th century. Since then, the quarry has been owned by a branch of the Esterházy family . This sand-lime brick was used at that time u. a. for church buildings in Ödenburg (today Sopron ), in Vienna for the construction of St. Stephen's Cathedral and Maria am Gestade . In the Baroque era , the Karlskirche in Vienna and later numerous buildings on Vienna's Ringstrasse were built from this stone .
Since 2001, the quarry is due to its historical importance, together with the cultural landscape of Fertő / Neusiedl as UNESCO - World Heritage listed.
The quarry was operated by Gustav Hummel GmbH for 66 years , and in 2017 the stonemasonry was bought by the Traiskirchen-based company Ecker Stein . Master stonemason Wolfgang Ecker took over the company shares in Gustav Hummel GmbH and the lease and dismantling agreement with the landowner, the Esterházy companies.
Sculpture Center
- Sculpture House Sankt Margarethen : The quarry, which until then had mainly been a material supplier, experienced a significant cultural boom when Karl Prantl held the first symposium of European sculptors at this location in 1959 . Today there are around 50 stone sculptures, some of which have already been somewhat weathered, on St. Margarethener Kogel.
open air museum
In the quarry, around 150,000 m² are freely accessible to visitors. In this area there are information boards about the various rock formations and the fossil finds that are shown in an exhibition room. These finds include whale vertebrae, shark teeth, fish, and clams. You can also see sculptures that various sculptors created here over the past few decades.
Since the 1960s, at the suggestion of Prantl, amateur actors have played passion plays in the quarry every five years . Since 1996 the natural stage has also been used as a summer theater for opera performances. When the area around the quarry was integrated into the Fertő / Neusiedler See cultural landscape, which was founded in 2001 , the Roman quarry once again experienced a tourist boost.
In 2007, the Fürst Esterházy administration completely redesigned the festival area by the architects AllesWirdGut .
St. Margarethen Passion Play
The venue for the Passion Play has been in the Roman quarry since 1961. The beginning of the games goes back to the year 1926 when the performances were first held by young people in the Unger family's farm. In 1933 the parish vowed to play the Passion Play every ten years "in order to obtain grace for a new, expanded place of worship and for the religious renewal of the parish and the homeland".
The Passion Plays were performed in the parish hall in 1933, 1936, 1946 and 1956. As the number of visitors increased, but many had to be turned away due to lack of space, a new venue was sought. Since the games have taken place in the Roman quarry at the suggestion of Karl Prantl, the performances have taken place every five years. The number of participants rose steadily up to 650 players, all of whom donate their free time free of charge. The net proceeds of the performances will be donated to charitable purposes. In 2006 the Passion Play had 70,000 visitors.
In 2011 the Passion Play was staged twenty times in a production by Robert Herzl from the Stadttheater Baden from June 12th to August 15th. The music comes from Thomas Steiner. Christian Katter and Hubert Händler slipped into the role of Christ.
Opera in the St. Margarethen quarry
The opera in the St. Margarethen quarry took place for the first time in 1996 (under the name of the St. Margarethen Opera Festival) and has developed into Austria-wide importance to this day. After the bankruptcy of the organizer of the St. Margarethen Opera Festival in spring 2014, the rescue and successor company, Arenaria GmbH, was founded, which now organizes the opera in the St. Margarethen quarry . In 2014 Aida was played, in 2015 Tosca was on the program. In 2016 was on the Ruffinibühne The Elixir of Love by Gaetano Donizetti listed.
Web links
- Roman quarry
- Opera Festival St. Margarethen
- St. Margarethen Passion Play
- Festival area in the Roman quarry
- Sculpture symposium in the St.Margarethen quarry
- Opera in the St. Margarethen quarry
Individual evidence
- ^ Symposium of European Sculptors in connection with Christa Hauer-Fruhmann (Ed.): St. Margarethen. Sculpture Symposium . P. 11.
- ↑ St. Margarethen quarry. Natural wonders and open air culture ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 14, 2014
- ↑ orf.at: New takeover after 66 years . Article dated July 10, 2017, accessed July 10, 2017.
- ↑ Excursion destinations in the free city of Rust , accessed on July 7, 2015.
- ↑ Esterházy offers guided tours through ROM! ( Memento of the original from August 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Everything will be well accessed on July 11, 2013
Coordinates: 47 ° 48 ′ 13 ″ N , 16 ° 38 ′ 3.7 ″ E