Natural Stone and World Heritage：UNESCO Sites in Germany

There are many world heritage sites in Germany. Most of them are constructed of or with natural stones. These sites are commonly presented to the public with a lot of information regarding historical, cultural, and artistic aspects.

Mostly there is no focus on the main building material, if it concerns natural stone. This work aims to show that it is precisely the natural stone that lends the sites their distinctive character. The used stones demonstrate the context and the interaction with the geology of the surrounding countryside as well as possibilities of transport and treatment.

They reflect culture and society at the time of the building phases. The second part of the work presents the most important stones that were used at these sites, along with their occurrences, aspects of quarrying in historical times and of course their petrographical, mineralogical and technical features. It is shown how these features influence the weathering of the stones and how restoration of stones is carried out.

The book will serve as a useful source book for geologists, archaeologists, architects, representatives of the natural stone industry, historians and cultural heritage management professionals specifically and for academic and non-academic communities, travellers and tourism industry operators in general.