Following the traces of a rock

Zöblitz owes much of its reputation if not its fame to the mineral serpentinite.

The soft rock, which can be cut and polished, was found in the area 500 years ago. Legend has it that a shepherd‘s boy was the „Inventor of serpentinite carving“ and even Martin Luther is said to have drunk his beer from a mug made of serpentine rock around 1524. The scholar and scientist Georgius Agricola, known as „the father of mineralogy“, refers in one of his works published in 1546 to the serpentinite carvers from Zöblitz and their artistic masterpieces which can still be admired in many exhibitions, museums and churches around the world. Some of the most beautiful pieces are exhibited at the museum and in the town church of Zöblitz.

You can also have a look at numerous sculptures created by international artists on the so-called „Weg der Steine“ („Way of Rocks“). In the quarry, you can see how the rock is cut and worked in the traditional way. Come and see for yourself!

03.12.2009 town Zöblitz Imprint Webmaster