Geology and architecture
Geology and architecture


St.-George’s-Church with the “Daniel” tower in Nördlingen

The use of suevite

Suevite, which was created by the Ries impact event, has been used as building stone in the Ries and the surrounding areas already by the Romans. Especially in the Middle Ages it became the building material for numerous buildings in Nördlingen and its surroundings. The cathedral of St.George , for example, with its tower called “Daniel”, is built almost entirely of suevite. It is not known exactly whether the
building material came from just one quarry, the quarry of Altenbürg.

Suevite has not only been used for the construction of churches, but also for other buildings of non-religious character in the region around the Ries and beyond.
In Nördlingen parts of the City Hall, the Baldingen Gate and other gates of the city wall, as well as parts of the city fortifications (e.g. the Berger wall), have been built with this material. In the area around
Nördlingen, suevite was used at Harburg and for a number of village churches. In Munich suevite building stones can be admired at the German Museum and the former Royal Bavarian Traffic Ministry. Even
Berlin hosts several suevite buildings.



Baldinger Tor, Nördlingen

Of special importance is the use of suevite for decorative purposes. Some examples: Parts of the outside staircase of the Nördlingen City Hall (built in 1618 by Master Builder Wolfgang Walberger in the late Gothic and Renaissance styles), part-relief works (Schneidt’sches Haus), or numerous archways on buildings such as the Sparkasse, Schneidt’sches Haus, and Museum “augenblick”. Many of these arches, however, have presumably been painted over (e.g. Reihl´sches Haus, Alte Schranne).



City Museum in Nördlingen – Pillars of suevite



Portal of suevite



Outdoor staircase of the Nördlingen City Hall

There are advantages but also problems in using suevite in construction, because of its special composition. The stone is actually a sedimentary rock formed as a poorly consolidated material which solidified through time (diagenesis). Its stability has been described by Weinig (1987): “The porous, coarsely fragmenting rock with irregular cracks and altered zones is only moderately stable and has therefore a variable and limited durability”. On the other hand, this material is easily shaped by hand tools.

The main problem is its susceptibility to weathering. Weathering damage can occur in one part while adjacent parts remain more stable. Therefore the mechanical strength and the presence of unstable minerals in the groundmass of suevite are of special concern. The latter react very sensitively to changes in environmental conditions and can therefore easily weather out. This results in the detoriation of the suevite building stone.



Suevite is susceptible to weathering: Oriel of the Nördlingen Town Hall



The suevite quarry of Altenbürg

 back top