Stamp point 39 / Felswerke open-cast mine

HWN 39 is located on the outskirts of Elbingerode at the Felswerke open-cast mine.

From the loca­ti­on of the stamp box you can see the enti­re open-cast mine and get some hel­pful expl­ana­ti­ons on the dis­play board to under­stand the form of lime mining.

The Elbingerode/Rübeland area is home to one of the hig­hest qua­li­ty and most important depo­sits of mass lime­s­tone in Ger­ma­ny. The lime­s­tone has the­r­e­fo­re been extra­c­ted here in open-cast mines for around 100 years. 

The lime­s­tone depo­sits in the Elbingerode/Rübeland area were for­med in the Devo­ni­an peri­od around 350 mil­li­on years ago. With a cal­ci­um car­bo­na­te con­tent (_CaCO3) of 97% to 99%, a depo­sit of unu­su­al puri­ty, homo­gen­ei­ty and thic­k­ness was formed. 

For many cen­tu­ries, the lime­s­tone was only extra­c­ted for local needs or for manu­fac­to­ry-type ope­ra­ti­ons, e.g. marb­le mills or small kilns in con­nec­tion with the local iron industry.

This chan­ged fun­da­men­tal­ly with the con­s­truc­tion of the Rübe­land Rail­way from Blan­ken­burg in the Harz Moun­ta­ins via Rübe­land, Elb­in­ge­ro­de to Tan­ne bet­ween 1884 and 1886. A lar­ge num­ber of lime works were built along the rail­road line within a few years. 

You reach the stam­ping sta­ti­on from the town cen­ter via Tor­stra­ße and fol­low the sign­pos­ted paths.