Important information at a glance
It is called Ruhpolding marble. It is a reddish shimmering limestone that was mined in the Haßlberg quarry until not so long ago. Its appearance and its workability can hardly be distinguished from the original and made it so popular.
Ruhpolding marble developed about 150 million years ago, during the more recent Jurassic period. It is blood red and interspersed with white veins and was mined in the Haßlberg quarry from the early Middle Ages. Strictly speaking it is a metamorphic carbonate rock, rather than real marble. But that did not bother secular or ecclesiastical rulers.
When the Abbess of Frauenchiemsee had the local church rebuilt in 1494, marble from the Miesenbach was used for the altars and funeral monuments. The stonemasons probably prepared the extremely heavy marble blocks locally and then laboriously transported the finished products to Lake Chiemsee by horse and cart.
There is also Ruhpolding marble on the town square in Traunstein. The Lindlbrunnen fountain has been there for about half a millennium. The column and knight figure, which is assumed to be Saint Leonard of Noblac, stoically defy time, wind and weather and testify to the rock's durability. Because a lot of valuable building material was needed at the Ducal Court in Munich at the beginning of the modern era and material from local soil was preferred - the Wittelsbachers loved the splendour of the Renaissance at the time - Ruhpolding marble can also be found there, for example in the Residenz in Munich or in the resting figure of the warrior in the Munich war memorial.
Even the mighty pillars of Nuremberg train station were once broken from the Haßlberg tunnels. Because of its ability to be polished and its beautiful colour, it was used in the Haus der Kunst in Munich and in the new German Embassy building in London.
In and around Ruhpolding itself, the marble is found in baptismal fonts, fountains and gravestones and in stone doorframes, which were common at that time. It was used for repairs to the electoral palace and for the marble high altar in Trostberg. It adorns the altar of the Johanneskirche in Ruhpolding and the AlpenSole fountain in Bad Reichenhall. The term Ruhpolding marble has been kept throughout the centuries, probably because it is as easily to work with and sand as the original.
In 1965, the quarry at Haßlberg was closed. No marble has been mined here since. The area has been one of the 100 most beautiful geotopes in Bavaria since 2009 and is used as a climbing garden. A hike to the former marble quarry is well worth it.
