To somebody who sees it for the first time it is an ugly scar on the hills above our town. For those of us who have grown up with the porphyry quarry it’s … well, home. Even as a child when we came home after a holiday I knew I would soon be home when I saw the yellowish stones on the hills in the distance.

Over the years the quarry grew larger and crept closer to the town.

And then it was too close. The Wachenburg, a 100 year old castle, was threatened. The problem is that the hill does not belong to our town. It belongs to a town 10 km to the south. Around 1900 some short-sighted town councilors exchanged the hill against some fertile farmland in the plain. Schriesheim, the owner, has a quarry, too, and the company working both quarries is situated there. They stopped their quarry expanding years earlier and the company kept working in our quarry. It took a combined effort of our town officials and a citizen action group and finally a court case to close down the works.

Nature is slowly taking back the area. A great owl has started nesting and raising youngs. Kingfishers are in the area. And trees and shrubs are starting to grown on the cliff face, and thus more animals are moving in.

Monochrome Madness: Stone

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