MY QUARRY: Mapping and documentation of abandoned quarries in Czech Switzerland
We cordially invite you to the first of a series of accompanying lectures to the travelling exhibition MY QUARIES, which we are hosting in the lobby of the Centre of Natural Sciences and Technology (CPTO) on 3 December at 16:00. The lecture “Mapping and Documentation of Abandoned Quarries in Czech Switzerland” will be given by the curator of the entire exhibition MY QUARIES from the Museum of the City of Ústí nad Labem, RNDr. Zuzana Vařilová, Ph.D.
The exhibition presents the results of the research of more than three thousand quarries discovered and mapped by historians and geologists from the Museum of the City of Ústí nad Labem and the Centre for Documentation and Digitization of Cultural Heritage of the Faculty of Arts, UJEP, as part of the research project “Database of old quarries and quarrying sites in the territory of the Bohemian Switzerland National Park and the Elbe Sandstone Protected Landscape Area”. The project TL05000407 was implemented in the years 2021 to 2023 and co-financed with the state support of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic under the ÉTA Programme.
The entire area covered by the project is 323 km2 and extends from Petrovice to Mikulášovice. It reveals thousands of abandoned, now overgrown quarries for building or decorative stone, iron pits, traces of limestone prospecting or rare ores. The exhibition reveals the remnants of intensive exploitation of the landscape of the Elbe Sandstones in the relatively recent past and shows how our ancestors influenced the rock relief by quarrying, as well as what surprising things have been preserved to this day as a result of their activities.
The topic of the first accompanying lecture “Mapping and documentation of abandoned quarries in Czech Switzerland” is the methods used, the experience gained and surprising findings, the main outputs of the three-year interdisciplinary project and their use in practice. The lecture will also focus on the risk of erosion of old quarry walls and risk zoning.
The lecture will take place on Tuesday, December 3, at 4:00 p.m. in Room 1.04 in the lobby of the CPTO building. Visitors can combine the lecture with a tour of the entire exhibition.
We look forward to your visit!