Granite in Hauzenberg

Grey Gold in Hauzenberg

‘We are sitting on a pluton with a radius of 10-20 kilometres,' says Klara Windpassinger, director of the Granite Museum in Hauzenberg, outlining the extent of the region's granite deposits. Plutons are bubbles of cooled magma that have risen to the surface from a depth of 10 to 15 kilometres. The molten rock crystallises, in our case to form granite. This probably happened about 350 million years ago. In the past, granite was mined in more than a hundred quarries, about 15 of which are still in operation. '

In the past, stonemasons were able to split the largest blocks,because they knew the 'course', the inner structure of the granite, and where to start. One of these legendary stonemasons works in the Götzer quarry.

Johann Gintenreiter, 62, stands on a huge block and drills a series of holes. He inserts two thin, forged iron rods into each hole, with a thicker, longer wedge between them. He then takes a large hammer and drives the wedges between the rods. They spread apart. A gap opens. The block is split in two.
‘ Hans recognises the shape of the piece in front of him. Good granite has a rectangular structure - created by the earth's magnetism, which has aligned the minerals in the magma,' says Manfred Götzer.