Quarries in the landscape of the county of Strzelin - native rock materials in the local architecture

The county of Strzelin is situated in the southeastern part of the Lower Silesia Province and includes the urban municipalities of Strzelin and Wiazow, and the rural municipalities of Kondratowice, Przeworno and Borow. Geology of the county area is quite interesting. This refers particularly to its southern part, belonging to the Strzelin Massif. The Neoproterozoic and Lower Palaeozoic metamorphic rocks of this area (gneiss, granite gneiss, schist, quartzite, amphibolite and marbles) enclose a granitoid massif, represented chiefly by granites and biotite granodiorites. Tertiary basalt intrusions represent a much younger igneous formation. Apart from the elevated part of the Strzelin Hills, the entire area is covered by Tertiary sediments of marine origin: bluish clays, as well as kaolinite clays and sands. The surface layer in most of the area is composed of Pleistocene glacial sediments, sand-gravel sediments, till and loess-like clays. Quarrying activities in this area have begun in the 10th century, when granite has started to be extracted in Strzelin and in Gorka Sobocka. These are chiefly granitoids (granite) that have been extracted in the area of the Strzelin County since then, but basalt, gneiss and sericite-quartz schist are also quarried here. Moreover, there are a few traces of marble and quartzite quarries in the region. Rock materials extracted in the area have been widely used in local architecture and civil engineering. Stone has been used mainly in the production of paving materials, street furniture, architectural details, sculptures, windowsills, stairs, fence bases, low walls, building foundations or as a general building material. Both the solid stone and stone-faced walls can be found in the area. Rock materials from the area of Strzelin (chiefly granite) were used in the construction of the first cathedral in Wroclaw (ca. 1000 AD), the columns in Berlin's Deutsche Bank building, stairs and floors in the Reichstag building, as well as for constructing the Northern Port in Gdansk, to mention just a few examples. The paper provides a description of selected stone-clad buildings made of Strzelin rock materials. It also presents different uses of rocks quarried in the region: basalt (as road paving material), marbles (decorative elements), granitoids, gneiss, quartzite (wall construction material), and sericite-quartz schist (wall cladding).