Vånevik granite
Vånevik granite is a reddish granite that occurs in the village of Vånevik in Småland south of Oskarshamn in Sweden . This granite is of great cultural and historical importance not only for Sweden, but also for Germany.
Rock description
The color of this granite is created by the reddish brown potassium feldspar and the blue colored quartz is typical for this natural stone ; there are also dark biotite , greenish plagioclase and accessory titanite . Vånevik granite is medium-grained.
use
Vånevik granite is frost-resistant and can be polished. It was used as a stone in solid construction, for columns, profiles, stairs, floor slabs, window sills, tombstones and monuments, pedestals and sculptures .
The pillars in front of Stockholm Konserthus are made of Vånevik granite and Tjolöholm Castle . The base of the Nybrohamnen bust in Stockholm harbor is made of Vånevik granite and other pedestals in Germany.
In the German Empire, Vånevik granite was a common stone in cemeteries.
Quarry history
A German entrepreneur, the stonemason company Kessel & Röhl , opened the first quarry in Vånevik in 1870 and began to break stones. Before the quarry operations in Vånevik came to a standstill in the 1950s, there were around 30 quarries .
The demand for granite as a building material was great in Germany during the period of industrialization and the founding period . In 1903 there was the first crisis in the Swedish stone industry when exports fell by 10%. In 1915 production sank due to the First World War and mass unemployment arose, around 60% of the 14,000 stonemasons were unemployed. After the world war the situation improved. In 1929 exports reached the pre-war level of 1913. This changed with the Great Depression . The Swedish state intervened and subsidized the stone industry, particularly in road building with paving stones made from Vånevik granite. In 1941 there were large orders from Nazi Germany, which Albert Speer placed on behalf of Adolf Hitler , who planned large construction projects after his final victory , which also affected granite deposits in Norway (such as Fjære granite ) and Finland. By 1944 at the latest it became clear that these orders, the so-called Hitler stones, would not be called up. As a result, natural stone production in Vånevik declined, the quarries were closed and many stonemasons migrated to other industries.
Others
In Vånevik there is a stone carving museum about historical granite mining and a hiking trail through the quarry landscape.
See also
Web links
- skan-kristallin.de : Sweden - Magmatite - Vånevik granite
- List of Vånevik granite quarries (Swedish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ runeberg.org : Nordisk familjebok / Uggleupplagan. 32. Werth - Väderkvarn / 1285–1286 , in Swedish, accessed on May 12, 2011
- ↑ upptacksverigeshistoria.se ( Memento of the original from August 21, 2010 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. : Våneviks Stenhuggeri / Vånevik's Stone Quarry, Stenhuggerimiljö i och runt villaområdet i Vånevik , in Swedish, accessed May 12, 2011
- ↑ a b home.swipnet.se ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2011 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. : Vånevik Stenhuggarmuseum , accessed May 12, 2011
