Description
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed primarily of sand grains. During the sedimentation of sand grains, silt, limestone, gravel, mica, feldspar, and other rock fragments are also deposited. Weathering turns an originally yellow-brown sandstone gray. The presence of certain oxides and other minerals gives some variants a brownish-red color. Sandstone consists primarily of quartz. Sandstone is widely used as a building material in the Netherlands and Belgium. In the Netherlands, Bentheimer sandstone (from Bentheim) and Obernkirchener sandstone (from Obernkirchen) are primarily used, and for sculptures, the fine-grained Baumberger sandstone, due to its high lime content, is also used. This fine-grained sandstone is very suitable for fine stonework and carving, but is not very weather-resistant. In the Netherlands, the name "sandstone" is used exclusively for pure sandstone (without lime) imported primarily from Northern Germany and, around 1900, also from Luxembourg and the surrounding area. The sandy limestones Balegemse Steen, Ledesteen, and Gobertange from Belgium (often called lime sandstone in Belgium), which are found in many medieval buildings, are usually not considered pure sandstones in the Netherlands. The common collective name for these types of stone is White Belgian Stone. In the Netherlands, sandstone surfaces in the east of Twente, near Winterswijk, and in Limburg. However, it is no longer quarried here. In the rest of the Netherlands, sufficient diagenesis has not yet occurred to yield sandstone. For four centuries, from 1450 to 1850, sandstone was primarily transported to the Netherlands from or via Bad Bentheim via the Overijsselse Vecht River. Cities such as Ommen and Zwolle benefited from this. Due to the high cost of transport, the stone was primarily used in important buildings. The facades of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, for example, are constructed of Obernkirchener and Bentheimer sandstone. The invention of the train brought many exotic stone types onto the market. This marked the end of the heyday of the Bentheim Gold trade. Sandstone is still mined on a relatively small scale in and around Bentheim, particularly in Gildehaus; the quarry near Obernkirchen is operated on a much larger scale.
