Panorama view of Lower Jurassic Adnet Marble at Wimberger Quarry (Plattenbruch) near Adnet (Salzburg, Austria); © Marmor-Industrie Kiefer GmbH.
Mesozoic – Upper Triassic/Lower Jurassic; part of the Northern Calcareous Alps of the Eastern Alps.
ENE of the village Adnet, SSE of the city of Salzburg, Austria.
Panorama view of Lower Jurassic Adnet Marble at Wimberger Quarry (Plattenbruch) near Adnet (Salzburg, Austria); © Marmor-Industrie Kiefer GmbH.
A multicolored suite of fossil-reach Austrian limestones.
The oldest use of Adnet marble goes back to Roman mosaics, a first major excavation period started around 1000 AD when the Romanesque period required building and decorative stones. Since then, the use of Adnet marbles is documented continuously with heydays in the Gothic, the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Classicistic periods. The diversity in usage of the marble includes wall coverings, floor slabs, portals, door frames, reveals, Marian columns, baptism fonts, altar barriers, holy water fonts, etc. Most importantly gravestones and detailed sculptures are the most valuable artistic products. Best known such examples are the table tomb of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III in St. Stephen’s Cathedral of Vienna, a UNESCO World heritage site, and the tomb for the Polish King Casimir IV Jagiello in Krakow (Poland). Adnet Marble has not only been used in Austria and neighboring countries but it was generally popular in Central and Eastern Europe (Austria, Germany, Italy, Czechia, Poland, Hungary, Croatia) as well as in countries oversea (USA, Canada).
Kretschmer, F., 1990: Heimatbuch Adnet, 1. Band, Marmor aus Adnet, 2. Auflage, 332 pp., Adnet: Verlag Gemeinde Adnet/Salzburg.
Werner E. Piller werner.piller@uni-graz.at
Thomas Hofmann thomas.hofman@geosphere.at