Limestone route

Bergisch Gladbach lies in the heart of the Bergisch Gladbach-Paffrath Limestone Basin. The rocks of the Paffrath Basin date back to the Devonian period, are approximately 360 million years old, and were deposited in a once-existing tropical shallow sea. They consist predominantly of limestone and dolomite, which were quarried for centuries in numerous quarries throughout the region and served as an important building material. Within the context of the entire Rhenish Massif, limestone is a unique feature, as the Rhenish Massif is predominantly composed of sandstone and greywacke.

The limestone route in Bergisch Gladbach takes this into account and leads to several historical sites of limestone mining and use, but also shows that there are limestones in other regions of Germany that can be similarly or differently formed and that we also encounter again and again as building material.

The quarries in the massive limestone of the Schlade near Romaney became famous throughout Europe for their abundance of fossils. Due to their porous structure, these limestones were rarely used as building material; at best, they served as decorative material on walls and house facades, or, as on our tour, on gravestones. The massive limestone was typically processed into quicklime in lime kilns.