Winning marble: the Kiefer Steinbruch Fürstenbrunn

On Saturday the Society of Friends of the Summer Academy organised a tour of Kiefer Steinbruch Fürstenbrunn, the marble quarry on Mt. Untersberg. The quarry is also the location of one of the Summer Academy’s courses: the Stone Sculpture Symposium, directed by Susanne Tunn and Hagbart Solløs. The visit allowed members of the Society, and a considerable number of students from different courses in this year’s Academy, to see how one of sculpture’s most enduring materials is won from the mountain.

The quarry provides a high quality marble which has been used as a building and artistic material for two thousand years. Clemens Oliver Deisl, co-managing director of Marmor-Industrie Kiefer GmbH, who own the site, gave us a brief history of the quarry and explained the process of extricating the stone. The tour included the opportunity to examine the various stages of the extraction in different parts of the quarry, and the machinery which make this possible. He provided us with a fascinating insight into the industry, although he admitted that only about one percent of the marble is used for sculpture.

We also had an opportunity to see the work being undertaken by students on the Stone Sculpture Symposium, before our hosts treated us to refreshments in the magnificent surroundings of the quarry.