The City of Dresden in the Mirror of its Building Stones: Utilization of Natural Stone at Façades in the Course of Time

Abstract

Natural stone is an old, traditional building material. Wherever solid rocks with appropriate technical properties appear at the Earth's surface, they have been used for building purposes. The building stones used in villages and cities often reflect the regional geology of the surrounding area (e.g., Frangipane 2004 ; Franzen and Mirwald 2004 ; and many others). In the north of Germany where solid rocks are lacking and the geology is dominated by the Quaternary with unconsolidated rocks like gravel, sand and clay, churches and town halls were built of bricks in the Gothic period. At the same time, craftsmen made use of sandstones in Saxony and limestones in Thuringia to erect the same kind of buildings. Transport was a limiting factor for the use of building stones far away from the rock deposits in ancient times. The situation was changing only in the middle of the 19th century with the development of a better infrastructure with roads and railways and improved means of transport.