Wernloch
Coordinates: 49 ° 21 ′ 50 ″ N , 11 ° 8 ′ 2 ″ E
The Wern hole called several abandoned quarries and water near the market Wendelstein in the Middle Franconian district of Roth in Bavaria .
location
The Wernloch is about 1 km northwest of Wendelstein, 10 km south of Nuremberg , 10 km east of Schwabach and 5 km west of Feucht on the Steinberge ridge in the Oberer Herrenschacht forest at an altitude of 350 to 390 meters above sea level . The abandoned Ludwig-Danube-Main Canal passes just 500 meters to the south.
history
For the construction of the medieval imperial city of Nuremberg , sandstone was mined between Wendelstein and Worzeldorf over centuries . In the beginning of the 2nd millennium, this was the most modern design in the region and gradually replaced the traditional mud brick construction . Quarry work at that time was mainly winter work, because the farmers and their oxen had nothing to do in the fields for months. In these quarries, a reddish pigmented bonded castle sandstone with iron (III) oxide and a particularly hard, quartz-bonded light gray to yellowish sandstone, the so-called Wendelsteiner quartzite, were extracted. The Wendelstein quartzite was used because of its resistance for millstones , hydraulic structures of the Ludwig Canal, towers, city walls and street pavement. Numerous important Nuremberg buildings such as the city theater, the artist house, the Sebalduskirche and the Palace of Justice (Nuremberg) were built from the simple stone . From the Wernloch the red sandstone was rafted very economically on the Schwarzach to Schwabach and the Rednitz to Fürth , partly on inferior firewood, partly on high-quality timber for a separate charge. The ropes and ropes required for this had to be returned immediately; the raftsmen had to be paid for separately. Because of their quality, the Wendelstein millstones were also exported across the main European watershed to the Altmühl and Danube valleys and then on to Hungary and Turkey .
The Wernloch was first mentioned in a document in 1236 in connection with quarry rights. The entire ridge between Wendelstein and Worzeldorf was previously called "Moofsersberg" and was first mentioned as such in 1343 , but was probably already being cultivated regularly in the early 11th century. It consists (from north to south) of: Knauersberg (353 m), Worzeldorfer Berg (387 m), Glasersberg (373 m), Steinberg (393 m) and Fischleinsberg (366 m). In the Middle Ages it was in imperial possession and was awarded as an imperial loan for special services to imperial officials, the so-called butiglers . The Nuremberg Butigler exercised lower royal rights and oversaw the imperial forest . The Rieter von Kornburg and von Seckendorff were also owners, but the imperial city of Nuremberg had the right to receive priority deliveries as well as to break stones there itself if there was excessive demand. At that time the Kornpergstein was the only legal building material for hydraulic structures. In 1449, however, this privilege was one of the reasons for war that Margrave Albrecht Achilles put forward against the city of Nuremberg. After the turmoil of the Margrave Wars, the quarrying became more and more a main occupation. In 1595 alone, around 50,000 stones were delivered to Nuremberg from several quarries . From 1471 to 1806 the quarries were continuously owned by the Nuremberg patricians . From the 18th century, Wilhelm Jegel is one of the owners. The individual quarries were named, for example, “Sonnengrub” (abandoned in 1789 after water ingress), “Hohlsteiner Bruch”, “Steinbruck Glasersberg”, “Schnöckengruben”, “Waßerloch” and “Neugrub”. The oldest pits on the southern Kornberg, already abandoned in the 15th century, were the Waßerloch and the Eisenhut. The rear and the front Wernloch were in operation until the early 19th century. The southeastern Fischelsberg was also excavated, but it was no longer as intensively and clearly exploited.
The stones were initially obtained by laborious manual labor and with the help of primitive tools such as two-pointed hoes (Zwiespitz or Bikkel). Large cuboids were detached from the wall by means of frost blasting or targeted excavation of the fault lines in the rock and wedges and broken down into smaller blocks. The so-called Badpfeng (bathing penny) has also been handed down. This means that in addition to their regular wages, the quarry workers were paid an evening visit to the local Wendelstein bathhouse , so that they could then return to their families from the dust and sweat of the daily drudgery. It was, so to speak, a medieval forerunner of the dirt and hardship allowance. For transport, flat, slightly sloping paths with cattle turns through the woods were laid out. Half a dozen are still recognizable on the historical maps. Paved routes still bear witness to these transport routes today. With permafrost, so-called ice seals were created there with snow and water, on which the roughly cut blocks were carried downhill from the quarry with relatively little effort. The then common block size was 3 × 1.5 × 1.5 feet, a size that an ox could easily pull even without a wagon. At the same time, the fracture surfaces are ground flat. Only the so-called humpback cubes were not sanded on one or more sides. Ice stock sport, which is widespread in some areas, is a sporty derivative of these historical processing methods. However, if there was an urgent need, the broken edges also had to be trimmed with hard stone and water outside of the frost times. The onward transport was initially carried out on rafts, sleds, rollers or carts. If the quarry operators themselves had to deliver by horse or ox cart, the stones then usually cost a little more than double the basic price (free city wall). The respective customer cities (mainly Nuremberg, Schwabach, Feucht and Roth) were obliged to maintain the bridges and country roads for the transport. The use of explosive powder increased in the 15th century . With the beginning of early industrialization , manual breaking and trimming work was increasingly given up in favor of rock saws powered by steam engines . A little later, the Ludwig-Danube-Main Canal , built between 1836 and 1846 , which passes below the ridge, and the Wendelstein – Feucht local railway were used for transport. In the late 18th century, the operators of the two Wernlöcher, together with the then modern technology, largely moved to the much more productive demolition area of the quarries near Wernsbach / Mauk a few kilometers to the southwest . The quarry used to have its own factory premises on the Ludwig Canal , which was closed in the 1910s.
Some of the pits were still in operation until the Second World War , but due to the falling prices for sandstone as a building material due to the industrial age, the quarries were gradually abandoned. Only the Hohlsteiner Bruch near Worzeldorf is still managed every two years for repairs. A secondary find in the Wernloch that was previously neglected is a globally unique mineral of the barite group , the so-called blue barite .
In the Vorderen Wernloch there was the popular excursion destination of the restaurant Hinterwernloch until the 1960s. The Steinberg church fair took place there every year at Whitsun. Due to the truly “Stone Age” sanitary conditions there, such as the lack of sewerage and the lack of running water, drinking water wells, etc., the management was soon given up, taking into account the increased hygiene awareness of the population. The former operators then set up a kiosk that is seasonally adapted to the weather conditions with irregular opening times for day trippers on the main access route to the site, at the old canal port in Wendelstein. For the sake of simplicity, the locals gave it the name Sandler-Eck, which is often used in the region, and was a popular meeting place for hikers, cyclists, ice skaters and other winter sports enthusiasts, as well as a small group of local residents. At the beginning of the 1990s, a very modern care facility for the elderly with a day café was built directly opposite on the former port area, and the kiosk was also given up and demolished.
Nature reclaimed its terrain, which developed into a local recreation area. Today the area is designated by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments as ground monument D-5-6632-0183. The overgrown area is used in particular for mountain biking and climbing on the broken edges, some of which are 25-30 meters steep.
At the south-western extension of the quarries there is a low pouring layer spring . The spring is enclosed and probably served to supply the workers with drinking water.
Flora and fauna
In the center of the abandoned pits, three smaller lakes with a total area of about 0.6 hectares were formed. These are so-called celestial ponds , which have neither an inflow nor an outflow and obtain their water exclusively from precipitation and penetrating groundwater . The water is clear, poor in nutrients and colored tea-brown by needle litter. The slightly acidic water today offers the habitat for a diverse fauna with fish such as rudd and crucian carp, frogs and countless insects. Furthermore, common toads, grass snakes, adders, wild bees, dragonflies, but also rare breeding birds as well as some bat species and small mammals can be found in the area of the quarry. The flora is home to diverse, rare sandy soil cultures as well as aquatic plants such. B. reeds and stately water lily carpets.
Access
The entire site is freely accessible all year round, part of the Natura 2000 network and part of the protected area DE6632372, Kornberge near Worzeldorf .
Several signposted hiking trails such as the Franconian Way of St. James lead through the Wernloch .
literature
- Brigitte Kaulich, Rolf KF Meyer, Hermann Schmidt-Kaler: Walks into the history of the earth, Volume 11: From Nuremberg through the Pegnitz-Alb to the Bavarian Eisenstrasse . ( Series of publications by the Franconian Switzerland Association: The Franconian Switzerland - Local History Supplements 15). Publishing house Dr. Friedrich Keil, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-931516-76-8 , pp. 44-57.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Landratsamt Roth, Sandschätze (accessed on June 10, 2013; PDF; 1.4 MB).
- ↑ Nuremberg city builder 1460-75 with notes
- ↑ Steinberge ridge - castle sandstone quarries in the south of Nuremberg
- ↑ Field names and numerous "to valley loops" on a historical map
- ↑ Natura 2000: DE6632372, Kornberge bei Worzeldorf , accessed on June 22, 2013.