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Praise the Lord

Until today the “Huschen”, iron sliding carriages used to transport the sandstone blocks down to the barges on the river Elbe, and the terraced working areas bear witness to past activities in the numerous quarries. For centuries sandstone from the banks of the river Elbe was an important building material for churches and public buildings in the entire region. The heyday of quarrying was during the Baroque era. The location of Dresden made it possible to build the Dresden Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady) using stone from the immediate vicinity of the city; the material used to rebuild it also came from quarries near Pirna. In total 28 000 m3 of sandstone were used in the restauration work; this includes more than 4000 blocks from the original building before its destruction in 1945 that were reused.