Building stones used in early mediaeval edifices of Krakow and geology of the area

Abstract

The early mediaeval period witnessed a considerable breakdown in masonry techniques and in architecture in the Polish territory: the application of stone and developing of skills of shaping rocks into regular cuboid stone bricks. Only local stones quarried within a distance of ca. 15 km from Krakow were used in early mediaeval edifices in the city. They were: two varieties of limestones (Upper Jurassic) and three varieties of sandstones of the Carpathian flysch (Cretaceous to Palaeogene). Sedimentary environments (facies) and post-sedimentary processes determined compactness, block divisibility and workability of stones, which, further on, determined their application. Thin bedded sandstone and platy limestone yielded easily workable and relatively small (few to a dozen of centimetres in length) and quite regular bricks used in the earliest buildings. Rocky limestone was a source of irregularly shaped clumps used initially as a filler of walls erected in the opus emplectum technique. Later, it was used also for cutting larger (few tens of centimetres), more regular blocks. Bedded limestone was a good material for obtaining larger (a dozen or two dozens of centimetres) regular bricks used widely throughout the whole early mediaeval period. Blocks (2 or more metres in length) of soft dimension Carpathian sandstone were used for shaping and carving large elements: tombstones, columns, volutes, epitaphs, etc. Techniques of quarrying and stone working developed considerable with time. Initially, slope scree and stone from demolished older ramparts were used. Later, quarries reached deeper beds which yielded larger bricks and blocks. Stone sources migrated with time too. The earliest places of excavation were located within the city, e.g. on the Wawel, Ska³ka and Krzemionki hills. When those deposits were exhausted, mining moved to more distant spots.

Composition of weathering crusts on sandstones from natural outcrops and architectonic elements in an urban environment

“…The Carpathian sandstones have been used in constructing works, as the rocks perfectly suitable for building purposes because of their good physical and chemical parameters. Other reasons are of the logistic nature (Rajchel 2004 , 2008 ; Bromowicz 2009 ; Bromowicz and Magiera 2010 , 2013 ): the stones were quarried chiefly within the Carpathian Foothill, just in a short distance south of Kraków (Fig. 1 ), from where could be transported in large blocks (Fig.…”

Niezagospodarowane złoża kruszyw piaskowo-żwirowych o potencjalnym znaczeniu strategicznym w Polsce

“…For this purpose, various methodologies of valorization proposed in recent years, e.g. by Bromowicz et al (2003Bromowicz et al ( , 2004Bromowicz et al ( , 2005, Galos et al (2016), Nieć and radwanek-Bąk (2013, 2014), radwanek-Bąk (2002, 2006, sermet and Górecki (2007), as well as wołkowicz et al ( 2018) have been reviewed. they take into account different sets of criteria, e.g., geological knowledge, volume and quality of resources, geological and mining conditions, and availability of the deposit resulting from environmental and land-use conditions.…”

“…the results of these analyses significantly differ as they were often adopted for specific groups of raw materials. Bromowicz et al (2003Bromowicz et al ( , 2005 proposed a valorization method for building and road stones in Poland, while Sermet and Górecki (2007) concentrated on factors that determine the geological and mining attractiveness of the deposits (both developed and undeveloped) classified as crushed and dimension stone (2007). Galos (ed.…”

The use of OBIA and petrography in the study of stone masonry: The case of La Palma, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

“…Archaeologists have traditionally viewed stone preferences in size, weight, cultural significance, and aesthetic value, through top‐down approaches that emphasize the managerial role of rulers in the construction of architecture. For example, in ancient Rome (e.g., Jackson & Marra, 2006), medieval Portugal (Sena da Fonseca et al, 2019), and medieval Eastern Normandy (e.g., Bromowicz & Magiera, 2013), provenance studies show that institutionalized elites largely shaped trade routes, the spatial organization, and even the aesthetic preferences of past societies. In this paper, we examine the case of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM), in which noncentralized ancient societies built massive settlements provided with monumental stone masonry in the absence of hierarchical polities.…”